


Persona 4: Eversion

by Azaelynn



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 13:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11336526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azaelynn/pseuds/Azaelynn
Summary: After tragedy strikes, Souji Seta returns to Inaba, only to be faced with a new uncertain crisis beyond his imagining that will require all his strength of will to prevent. He will also need to find strength in new allies, and old, along the way before all is lost.





	1. Grief and Home

**Author's Note:**

> I finally made the leap to post my stories in other places, so here I am on AO3. I also have this particular story over on FF.net, so you may have seen it before. I am going through some editing of the story, and will posting the finished bits here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souji's arrival back to Inaba is not a happy one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor edits. 11/13/2017

* * *

 

 

It was startling to realize at just how similar, and in the same breathe how vastly different, his circumstances were to a year previous - almost to the day - when he'd taken this same train to the small town of Inaba, where his life had been changed forever.

And now, one eventful year later, his life was irrevocably changed again.

Only a few short hours ago, Souji Seta had numbly attended his parents' funerals, and he was still reeling from it, emotionally wrecked from the cause of their deaths. The suddenness of the event was too much for him to really get a handle on. A year ago, on this same train ride, he'd been more apathetic of his school transfer, taking him away from the parents he now mourned deeply. And just a few weeks ago, he had felt happy that, while he was leaving behind all his friends, precious in his heart, with all of whom he'd formed deep and unbreakable bonds, he'd being seeing his parents for the first time in just under a year.

The night he'd arrived home, Souji had surprised his mother by enveloping her in a warm hug, reminiscent of those he'd given as a much smaller child and repeating the process with his father before talking long into the night with the both of them about a great many things, simply enjoying their company and presence as they caught up with one another.

Also, a day or two after his arrival home, Souji had discovered to his surprise that he still had the power given to him by Izanami to go into the TV and into the world beyond the TV portal. Of course, considering he wouldn't be at all familiar with that world outside of Inaba, he hadn't tried it out with large, people-sized TVs, and Souji had been considering telling his mother about the Midnight Channel, and the shadow world, and everything that had occurred concerning it.

But then, there was the accident. Souji had been at home that fateful night, cooking dinner for when his parents were due back from a quick trip out to see a business client when a police officer had knocked on his door, regretfully informing him that there'd been a terrible accident. He'd rushed to the hospital immediately, forgetting about dinner.

His father had died in surgery as he'd gotten to the hospital, and the officer had explained what had happened, as Souji listened in a daze. A drunk driver in one of those large commercial vans had been speeding, and had run right through the red light of the busy intersection just as his mother's much smaller car was going through on her green. She had died instantly at the scene, long before the ambulance and paramedics could arrive.

Souji couldn't really remember the rest of that night, or much of the next day, although he could kind of remember something a fire and his house being destroyed in the subsequent blaze, until the call from Dojima had come. The police had called him, as Souji's only remaining emergency contact, informing him of the situation of both Souji's parents and loss of the Seta family home, and his uncle had immediately offered to take him in, for as long as he needed, and for that Souji was forever grateful.

Dojima had just about taken care of everything that could be over the phone, unable to leave Inaba because Nanako still wasn't fully recovered from her kidnapping, and he even took a few days off from work at the station to help Souji with getting the funerals organized, to settling his parents' accounts and affairs. Then, once Souji was settled back in Inaba, the plan was for Dojima to finalise affairs with the insurance companies, from the house burning down, to his parents' life insurance, the settlement from the drunk driver's commercial insurance, and selling the land his home once stood in the city, as Souji had no desire to remain there, and the money earned from the sale would go into a trust fund for Souji. It was to be used for college, or even buying a house of his own later on, if that was what Souji wanted to do.

Dojima stressed that there was time for those decisions in the future.

There were some other things to think about, but Souji was too numb with grief at the moment to think too much about it, so instead he focused on staring out the window at the passing countryside, just like he'd done last year when he'd taken the train to Inaba the first time.

With a small sigh, the lightest release of air escaping his lungs, Souji glanced down to his lap where in one hand he held two photos, deadened eyes skimming across the photo paper. One photo was one he'd taken with his parents, practically when they'd picked him from the train station when he'd left Inaba, a slightly off kilter shot from his phone. They were both smiling, waving at the camera, laughing gently as he'd fumbled with his phone, and now he'd never be able to see them again. With the fire, an accident caused by his abandoned cooking that night, it was now the only photograph Souji had of his parents.

The second photo was the last one he'd taken with his friends, before he'd left, and he remembered the blissful happiness he'd felt then in that moment. He was in the center; a rare smile on his lips, and standing just behind was Kanji and Dojima. Chie and Yukiko were on the other side, with Yosuke in between him and the girls. The younger girls, Rise and Naoto were in front of him, with Nanako in the middle, and Teddie was beside Kanji. Everyone was smiling in the picture, and Souji recalled all the precious bonds he'd forged and shared with them.

His eyes kept wondering the photo, seeking out the young man that was his best friend, with whom he'd developed one of his first and more powerful Social Links, and the first one of their rag-tag group to fight beside him.

Yosuke Hanamura, manager's son of the YasoInaba Junes department store, Social Link of the Magician Arcana, and his best friend. But as he stared at the photo, Souji found himself admiring the other teen in a way he'd only done before with the girls, just barely smiling as he fondly recalled the fire in Yosuke's warm brown eyes when in battle or when he laughed, and the playful grin he'd sport when teasing Kanji, or how warm he was when he'd sling an arm over Souji's shoulders, and Souji felt his face warm as a light blush touched his cheeks.

He tore his gaze away from the photo, focusing once again on the passing landscape out the window. There was no way he could be thinking of Yosuke like that! Even if he were, those feelings, real or not, wouldn't be reciprocated, Souji was sure of that... maybe. His emotions were just going haywire, what with everything that's already happened to him, physically, mentally, and emotionally. That was it. That's all it was.

He was sticking with that theory. For now.

Still, he had missed the other teen, maybe a little more than he'd missed the others, if he was honest with himself. There was something about Yosuke that drew Souji in, always had been, and he knew, somehow, that Yosuke would always be there for him, right there beside him, to help him get through his recent turmoil and grief.

Briefly, he wondered if any of his friends even knew anything about the accident that had claimed his parents' lives, or his current, albeit temporary, homelessness. They probably didn't know anything at all, since Dojima was far more sensible than he was and had mostly likely figured that Souji wouldn't be able to handle all the attention his troubled arrival would attract from his friends in his current numbed state. He'd have to be sure to thank his uncle later for that.

Souji's gray eyes were heavy with exhaustion, and his heart was numb and cold, as he felt sleep's grip closing in on him. He was on the final stretch before YasoInaba Station, but he'd been going for hours now, awake for what seemed like days, and he was more than ready for at least a few minutes of dubiously restful sleep.

Souji allowed his eyes to slip closed, head failing forward to rest against his chest, and he had the faintest feeling of running along a set of train tracks before his eyes opened again on their own accord.

He was in a private train car luxurious and opulent, dark and sombre with shades and hues of blue and charcoal, the view outside the double-paned window filled with nothing but millions of twinkling and glittering stars, and in the seat across from him was a familiar face, one who gazed back at him with thinly veiled surprise and just a little sadness.

"Welcome, once again, to the Velvet Room." Igor had not changed, even in the slightest. "It has so far been unprecedented for a previous guest to return to the Velvet Room once their challenge has been met, and they have fulfilled their contract, but it would appear that Fate is not yet done with you."

"Can you tell me why I'm here?" Souji asked, not really expecting a straight answer.

The Master of the Velvet Room slowly shook his head, but with a small wave of his white-gloved hand, familiar tarot cards appeared face down in mid air. "When a guest of the Wild Card first joins me, I am able to give them insight of an upcoming challenge or trial in their future, as I did so with you during our first encounter; however, I will only tell you one thing, since I am still as of now unaware of any prevailing trial in the immediate future. When I know more, I shall certainly inform you directly."

Souji nodded, satisfied. It was better than he'd expected.

With a flick of his wrist, Igor revealed the first card, which Souji recognized immediately.

"Ah, the Magician, in the upright position. Now, under normal circumstances, of which this meeting most certainly is not,, this card would indicate your recognition of your potential, and a willingness to take risks toward a goal, whatever that may be. We already know of your infinite potential, and our current circumstances are rather unusual. As such, I believe this card represents someone close to you; a great ally, a friend, or perhaps something more, and that you should be willing to take a risk with that someone." Igor shrugged, glancing at Souji rather slyly, his toothy smile taking a slanted edge. "The meaning should become clear to you with time."

"I understand." This had to do his turbulent feelings, whatever they were.

Igor smiled his creepy grin, appearing more surreal than usual for the odd man. "Excellent! The next card is The Fool, also in the upright position, meaning that this coming year will be a journey full of difficult and important decisions for you to make. But I do not believe that surprises you."

And Igor was right; Souji wasn't at all surprised at the second card. After all, a trip to the Velvet Room just foreshadowed a trying and turbulent future.

"Then, until the next we meet." Igor's high pitched voice whispered through his conscious mind as the Velvet Room shimmered and faded from view, delving him back into the soothing darkness of slumber.

He woke up, raising his head from where his chin had rested on his chest, to the tinny automatic announcement as the train pulled into the YasoInaba station. Shaking his head to rid himself of the fog in his head, he grabbed his two small bags from the storage space above his seat and left the train, his sharp gaze seeking out his family.

Ryotaro Dojima stood waiting for him in front of the station, smoking a cigarette as he leaned against the front of his car. He looked up, catching sight of Souji and hurried to put out his smoke before walking over to help him with his bags. He looked particularly haggard and worn out, with dark circles under his eyes and his dress shirt more wrinkled than usual, but he did just lose his older sister, too.

"Hey, kid. How're you holding up?" Dojima greeted with a worn, wry smile.

Souji shrugged rather listlessly, his grief forcing him to look away from his uncle's supportive gaze, even as he returned the smile with a small strained one of his own. "I'm alright, I guess. It's... hard."

Dojima's sigh was heavy with his own grief, grief that matched Souji's. "Yeah, I know. It will be, for a while."

"Does anyone know I'm here yet?" He wanted away from the reminder, before he could wallow too deeply. Dojima shook his head in the negative, allowing the abrupt subject change with no comment.

"No, I haven't told anyone, but I think that Nanako's made a guess, I haven't exactly been all that discreet about clearing out your old room, or hiding all the phone calls all that well. I don't think she knows why you're back, but she won't say anything, though. I figured that you would want to tell your friends when you were ready, and not before."

"Thank you." His smile was a little more genuine, appreciative of the effort his uncle was making for him.

Dojima shrugged as they piled his few belongings into the backseat of the car and pulled away from the station, gravel crunching before the tires and he glanced sidelong at his nephew. "I know it's hard right now, and for a long time, and I'll miss them too, but you'll always be family to us, and I'm glad that you made it out safe. Remember, I told you before that you're more like a very young brother to me. I don't want you to forget that."

Souji managed to smile weakly. "I remember that. I know, and thank you."

The car ride into town was blissfully quiet after that, and Dojima avoided most of the areas his nephew had frequented, instead taking a more roundabout route back to his home, which Souji appreciated, as it would lessen the chance of being seen by anyone he knew. It wasn't until they pulled into the small driveway in front of the house that the Detective spoke again. "I should warn you; I do have one of your friends watching over Nanako, since she's still recovering from her... ordeal."

While Souji was just a little nervous to be so close to one of his friends, not really wanting anyone to see him in his vulnerable state, he more than understood his uncle's concerns for his young cousin, especially since her kidnapping was only a few months past, back in November. She had only been in the other world for a few days, before Souji and the others had found her, but it had severely jeopardized her health afterwards, keeping her in the hospital for weeks. He remembered quite vividly that the urgency to take down Adachi was in large part fuelled by the fear and anger of Nanako's at-the-time uncertain fate; there had been no way of telling if she'd even wake up. So he understood and accepted that he couldn't fault his uncle for keeping someone with her. "So who is it?"

"That Junes boy you're friends with... the Hanamura kid; Yosuke Hanamura. Since he lives nearby, I've had him over to watch Nanako a few times, you know, to keep her company, whenever I'm not at home." Dojima smiled wryly. "He's probably the only one of your friends who'll keep quiet and not make too much of a fuss about your... ah, sudden return."

Yosuke. Souji was glad, more relieved, really; especially since the other teen had been on his mind a lot more than he was ready to admit to recently; even Igor had made mention of him; the Magician was always going to be Yosuke, although Igor had been rather sly about his insinuations.

"He's cool. I think I can handle seeing him right away, and I'll always be happy to see Nanako, but I'm... not ready yet for any of the others; I love them but they're all so nosy and persistent."

Dojima nodded, hauling his bags out from the backseat of the car. "Yeah, I thought as much; I know you two are close, and he's got a sensible head on his shoulders. Let's get inside."

Souji followed after his uncle, though he was unsure as to what his uncle meant about 'close'. As they opened the door to the house and took off their shoes, Nanako came running around the corner with a smile on her small face. "Dad's home!"

She paused, seeing Souji there, luggage at his feet and a weary, downcast look in his eyes before rushing to him, throwing her arms around his waist. He dropped down to her level, balancing on his knees and he hugged her close, holding her tightly.

"You're back!" She said, excited for her 'brother', before she grew solemn, undoubtedly picking up on his dark mood. "Did something bad happen?"

Tears pricked at his gray eyes and he nodded into her small shoulder. "Yeah, something bad happened."

Just at that moment, Yosuke walked around the corner, his warm, carefree smile fading instantly at the tragic sight in front of him. Dojima was standing there, uncomfortable as he looked away from his nephew and Souji was hugging Nanako as though afraid to lose her once he let go, and his grief was almost tangible in that small hallway, thick and oppressive.

"Um, Dojima-san, di-did you need me for... anything else?" He asked softly, awkwardly.

The detective nodded, clearly relieved for the distraction Yosuke presented. "Yeah, I need to put Nanako to bed, so could help him with his stuff?"

Souji let go of his cousin and slowly got to his feet, surreptitiously wiping away his tears as Yosuke came closer. Without a word, the slightly smaller teen grabbed one of his bags and followed Souji upstairs to his room.

The room was exactly as he'd remembered leaving it, barren of anything even remotely personal and, somehow, colder for the emptiness. He didn't even have any of the things he'd collected in the last year; none of the books or models had survived the fire. The futon was still in the corner, with the old comforter, out of the way of the dresser and desk. It looked like Dojima had pulled everything out again, once again turning the room into a living space.

With a small sigh, Souji dropped the large duffel that held his only surviving clothes to the floor and sank onto the couch, eyes closed. His rampant thoughts had once again decided to replay the hospital, the police station after the fire, and the funerals, reminding him of why he was now back in this room.

He heard some shuffling around the room, but he didn't bother to open his eyes. He didn't care to; didn't even want to. In that moment, Souji didn't know what to say, didn't know what to think. Everything in his soul was just... numb. It was only when a hand lightly touched his shoulder that he looked to see who was there.

Oh. He'd nearly forgotten that Yosuke was there. His best friend was standing in front of him; hand on his shoulder and the same set of orange headphones hanging around his neck. He looked worried or concerned, with a flash of something else that Souji couldn't identify, and it struck him suddenly that those emotions were for him.

"Futon's ready when you are."

"Oh. Thank you."

Yosuke nodded, moved away from him, trying to keep his hands busy to stop from fidgeting, and Souji suddenly wanted him to stay close, within easy reach. "It's no problem. I won't ask what happened, and I won't tell the others if that's what you want, but if you need anything, anytime, you know I'm only a phone call away."

"Thank you."

"Seriously, you can call if you need to, for anything." Right then, Souji was aware of the rather soothing effect his best friend's company presented, and he was loathe to let that go; he could still feel the terrible grief of his parents' deaths and the gaping hole left behind in their wake, but with Yosuke standing right there, he felt that the loss wasn't nearly as overwhelming as it had been only moments ago.

Maybe that was why he was surprised when he reached out and grabbed Yosuke's wrist, almost without thinking of it.

"Actually... could you stay for a bit longer?" He loosened his hold on Yosuke quickly, letting him go, still surprised by his action.

The other teen nodded, smiling softly and reading correctly into Souji's silent request of not leaving him alone. "Of course, yeah. I'll just go let Dojima-san know and call my place. You get ready for bed; you look ready to pass out."

When the door was shut, Souji wearily rose from the couch and he started digging through his bag for some comfortable clothes, pulling some out for Yosuke to change into as well. He changed quickly, exchanging his dark jeans for some loose sweats. He also removed his socks and tossed them into the corner.

Yosuke came back into the room as Souji pulled a long sleeved Henley over his head, inadvertently showing off his chest and torso. He pulled the shirt down quickly, but Souji thought he noticed a very faint blush on the other's face. No, it had to be his imagination. A trick of the light.

"Whoa, sorry dude. Everything's cool with me staying, by the way."

Seeing how supportive and unobtrusive his friend was being, Souji felt a sudden onslaught of relief, like a great weight off his shoulders and tears stung at his eyes once more. He felt his public mask crumble to pieces as the tears started to fall, but he couldn't help himself; Souji hated being this emotional and unbalanced around another person, but if it was going to happen anyway (and it was; there was no stopping the flood), then he was glad that he could lose his normally stalwart composure when he was with Yosuke.

Yosuke was at his side in an instant, one arm wrapped around his shoulders in a soothing gesture, shifting him until they were sitting side by side on his futon, only a few inches separating the two of them. "Hey! Whatever's going on, everything's going to be ok! Aw, man, you were always the one who was good at this kind of stuff!"

Even as tears spilled down his face, Souji managed a small laugh at his friend's expense, the sound thin and stuttering. "Heh, you're doing fine." He wiped furiously at his eyes, but he couldn't stop his crying, his tears only falling harder. The dam on his emotions had finally been broken. "... Damnit! I miss them! I miss them so much!"

His words had been barely whispered, but Yosuke had heard him anyway, being so close, and he pulled Souji closer to his chest in a warm, comforting hug, strong arms wrapped around him as his body quacked from his wracking sobbing. "... Your parents died, didn't they?"

After all, it didn't exactly take a genius to figure it out; it was common knowledge that Souji didn't come from a large family, and he'd watched as Dojima came to the same grief-filled stress and anxiety he saw in his best friend. It wasn't normal for Souji to be withdrawn and hesitant. Yosuke's heart ached in his chest at the sight of Souji's hurt and grief.

Souji just buried his face into Yosuke's neck, slowly soaking the other teen's t-shirt with his tears as he sobbed quietly, showing far more unrepentant emotion than he had all year. He'd always been so in control over himself, even when shocked or scared or even happy; Souji had rarely shown it to any real degree.

Yosuke could only hold him tight as he cried, rubbing his back gently with one hand as his best friend grieved and cried himself out. It hurt, so terribly, to see his best friend brought down so low, and it tugged fiercely at his heart that Souji would take such much-needed comfort from him, and not seek out one of the girls, who were so much better at dealing with emotional fallout than he was. Then again, he'd always been fiercely protective of Souji, and there were his own burgeoning feelings that Yosuke refused to think too much into, well... for the time being, anyway.

After a while, maybe an hour, Souji finally had no more tears to cry, though he was thoroughly exhausted, and with some sniffling, he pulled away just slightly from Yosuke, blushing with embarrassment at the large wet spot he'd caused with his crying on his shirt. "I am so sorry about that."

Yosuke glanced down at his damp shirt and he shrugged it off with his usual grin. "Ah, don't worry about it. Looks like you needed a good cry. 'Sonly natural."

The silveret yawned suddenly, more than exhausted from the long day's events. Then again, Souji hadn't managed much sleep at all over the last few days. Yosuke grinned at him, the familiar expression subdued. "Need some sleep, too, no doubt about it. I'll spend the night and crash on the couch."

Souji nodded blearily, as ever grateful of Yosuke's strong friendship. "Thanks. I really needed this."

"Eh, I have my uses."

 

* * *

 


	2. A Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An emotional roller coaster of feelings and revelations.

* * *

 

The next day was a Sunday, so there was no school, and for once Yosuke wasn't needed at Junes, so he offered to help Souji unpack what few belongings he had since he didn't have much of anything else to do for the day, and, which Yosuke would never admit to aloud, he really didn't want to leave Souji alone for a while. He was worried about his friend, and wanted to stick around for as long as was possible; if only to make sure his best friend was going to be alright.

Souji accepted his friend's offer, and after a quick breakfast with Nanako, the two of them hurried back to his room and made short work of Souji's two large bags that he'd brought with him, hanging Souji's few clothes that had been salvageable from the fire in the closet (Yosuke wondered about the smoky smell still clinging to the fabric), and Yosuke dug out an empty tiered style picture frame from a corner of the living space, installing Souji's only two photos on his desk.

Yosuke looked through the two empty bags, briefly wondering where everything else was. He knew Souji had more stuff than this, hell; he had some more clothes than this. Tucking the empty bags into a corner of the closet, Yosuke looked over to his friend, where he noticed Souji looking downcast and avoiding his stare.... out of embarrassment?

"Dude, where's the rest of your stuff? I mean, you had a lot of books last time, and those models you liked so much."

Souji shrugged, feeling a little lost. "There was an accident, right after my parents died. Like, the night of. My house burned down. There's nothing left. I'm lucky I have this much." Yosuke blinked, surprised. Well, that answered that question. "Oh. Well, um, don't worry about it. Stuff's replaceable; you aren't. I'm just glad you're alive and okay."

He got a small smile out of Souji for his sentiment. "Thanks."

They were finished after that and in silent agreement, headed downstairs to get something to eat for lunch and maybe some snacks for a lazy afternoon in watching TV, and finding from a note that Nanako had left for the afternoon to a friend's house close by. Souji dutifully put his friend's clothes from the day before in the wash, leaving Yosuke to wait at the kitchen table in some clothes he'd borrowed from Souji and that was how Dojima found them in the kitchen, as Yosuke watched and made small talk while Souji prepared their food, a quick stir-fry tossed together with some about-to-go-off vegetables and some rice.

"Uh, hey boys?" The teens in question paused and looked in unison at the detective. The older man had a small duffle at his feet, his jacket over his arm, and he already had his shoes on. "I'll be going to the city now, to finish up things there that couldn't be done over the phone; shouldn't be gone longer than a week or two, at the most. Souji, I'll also do some shopping to replace some of the things you lost in the fire. I won't get you enrolled in school until I get back, so you'll have time to take care of Nanako for me."

Souji nodded. "I understand, and thank you; you don't have to go shopping for me."

"You're family, and I want to do this for you, and, Yosuke, thanks for all your help."

Yosuke grinned at the detective, shrugging off the comment. "Ah, he'd do the same for me, it's been a pleasure."

"All the same, thank you, and I mean with Nanako, too."

"You're welcome. You're catching the next train out?"

Dojima nodded, picking up his duffle. "Yeah it leaves in about a half hour; I should be back by the end of the week, two tops. Just don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone, got it!"

Even Souji had to smile a little. "Yes, understood." And then they were alone again as the front door shut closed behind Dojima, and Souji went back to his cooking, finishing up the easy meal quickly and once he was finished putting the dishes into the sink to wash later, Souji joined his best friend on the couch in the living room, ignoring the day-time drama playing on the TV, once again feeling a heavy weight in his heart, and he considered his options while he ate before making a choice.

Souji waited patiently for Yosuke to finish and then he started to talk.

"They uh... my parents died on a car crash."

Yosuke turned surprised eyes towards him, absently reaching for the remote to turn down the volume of the TV, but he didn't say anything yet in response to Souji's tentative words. He just waited for Souji to continue in his own time; waited for whatever Souji was prepared to share with him.

"The accident happened about a week ago, I think. Memory's a little fuzzy, from the shock, I've been told. They were driving home, something to do with their work and a meeting with a client, and my mother wanted me to have dinner ready. I was notified of their... passing while cooking, and an officer took me to the hospital where they'd been taken to. I forgot to turn off the oven when I rushed out the house, the officer just followed after me. I found out about the fire later, so losing my family home was my fault." Souji's voice was now monotonous, clipped, as he recited what he knew about the tragic event that took everything from him. Yosuke only shifted closer to his friend, and he put one hand on Souji's knee, squeezing his leg as a reminder to the other teen that he was there, if Souji needed him.

"The hospital was absolute chaos. The drunk driver that killed my parents had also caused a few more accidents, before and after hitting them. My mom's little car never stood a chance. I was told she died instantly, but my dad survived long enough to start surgery, but he didn't make it. The driver practically walked away without a scrape, completely shit-faced drunk; I don't even know if he was aware of all the people that got hurt or killed by him. After Dad didn't make it, I had to identify their bodies; there wasn't much left, but there was so, so much blood. I... I don't think I'll ever be able to forget."

He broke off, words failing him as he drew in a shaky breath as the memories of his parents' shattered bodies rose to the forefront of his mind, and he reached almost blindly for Yosuke's hand, clutching it tightly in his own. His gray eyes were screwed shut in blindingly bright, still-fresh recollection, and other than the warm hand he clutched to like a lifeline, Souji seemed almost unaware of Yosuke's familiar presence beside him.

The music loving teen felt his heart break into a thousand little pieces as he could only imagine what had come next, and he felt brief butterflies in his stomach with Souji's tight grip on his hand.

"They uh, they caught the guy, the driver. Fucking walked away from the crash, and the police brought him in to get detoxed, I think, so they could arrest him. I saw him, he was so loud, shouting gibberish, and I think I hit him, 'cause I busted up my hand a bit. I don't really remember at that point." He frowned, and a tear leaked out from his clenched eyes. "I won't get charged with anything; doctors all said it was from the shock, and I don't think the police had any sympathy for the guy, either. I remember coming around later, I was just sick, I kept remembering what she looked like, on that cold table."

Souji's grip on Yosuke's hand tightened (though Yosuke would not be complaining about a sore hand) and his posture was hunched in his grief as he continued to recount the horrific events of that night. Yosuke felt a little like crying himself, he couldn't even imagine having to actually all of it. "I think they got Dojima's info out of me, because the next thing I knew, he was on the phone, and I just starting crying all over again. I think I was sick some more, too. I don't really remember too much of the next couple of days, other than a hotel room, lots of people coming and going, and two days ago, I think, was when the funerals were held. Then I was already on the train coming here."

"Souji..."

Yosuke could only sit there, speechless in the face of Souji's absolute devastation, on the couch beside his best friend, as more tears slowly leaked out from the corners of his tightly shut eyes. To have both your parents die like that, in a completely devastating fashion, and having to identify what was left (how Souji even managed to do that, Yosuke had no idea), well, the whole experience was worse than any horror story he could think of, and he was at a loss as how to help Souji with this. This kind of grief was beyond his scope, and the closest thing in comparison had been Saki-senpai's murder last year, which honestly didn't even compare, not on this scale.

So Yosuke did what he had done the previous night, and he pulled Souji to his chest in another comforting hug, tucking Souji's head under his chin. He would do absolutely anything for his best friend, his Leader, his partner, his... his _what_?

It was right then, epiphany crashing through his skull, holding Souji as he cried gut wrenching sobs again at the loss of his parents, that Yosuke realized that he had... particularly strong feelings for Souji. Romantic feelings, which made Yosuke feel kind of slimy, because, wow... he had absolutely abysmal timing.

But those feelings were true. Seeing Souji like this was killing him, pulling at his heart, and he'd always liked and admired the other teen before. Yosuke was also man enough to admit that Souji was attractive, as evidenced by the throngs of women following him everywhere. Souji was the only person he'd take orders from, knowing that Souji always his (and the others') safety in mind, and he trusted Souji like he did no one else. He could tell Souji anything without having to worry about being judged or mocked, and he knew the silveret cared for him on some level; they were already best friends.

However, as untimely and enlightening as his newly-realized feelings were, Yosuke didn't really have the time to be thinking about anything else, since he was still (attempting) comforting his grieving friend. He belatedly noticed that the other teen had stopped crying, but Souji hadn't moved from his hug, so Yosuke leaned his head back a bit, still holding him, trying to take a look at Souji's face.

His gray eyes were open, tear tracks down his face, and he looked so sad, so lost and heartbroken that Yosuke couldn't stand it, wiping away some tears with a swipe of his thumb.

"I realize this hurts a lot right now, more than I can imagine, but everything's going to be ok now. You're here now, home with us, and I'll take care of you." Yosuke blushed a bit as he realized what he'd just said, and how intimate their position was, but Souji didn't seem to mind. "I would never leave you alone, if you wanted me to stay."

Souji felt that Yosuke's words had much more deeper meaning to them than it seemed, and he felt his face redden. He hated being so _goddamn_ vulnerable, so out of control and exposed; so out of touch with his own emotions! Before arriving in Inaba last year, he'd perfected his aloof front and distanced himself from everything around him, but meeting Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko and the others had softened him, becoming precious to him, with the teenager in front of him being the closest to his heart.

"You feel any better? Sometimes the crying helps after talking about stuff like this." Yosuke said quietly, and Souji pulled away slowly, breaking the other teen's hold on him. He noticed that Yosuke also red in the face, but there was a glint in his eyes, some poorly concealed emotion that Souji couldn't identify right away. It did make him feel reckless and impulsive and he recalled Igor's words on taking a chance, a risk.

"Actually, I do feel better. Thanks for listening to all that." He smiled weakly at Yosuke, and before he could lose his nerve he decided to take his chance. "And, there's... something else."

Yosuke tilted his head to one side in confusion, like a puppy, and Souji found the gesture rather adorable. "What is it?"

"Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reminiscing since I left over a month ago, and the one thing my mind kept returning to was... well, all I kept thinking about was you." Souji had to look away from his friend, not wanting to know yet what Yosuke thought of his confession. Instead, he kept on speaking. "I would recall our first meeting, the way our friendship grew, and I would always say to myself that I wanted you to meet my parents. I had already told my mother about you, and I realized that I admired you, a lot. First, it was the way you supported and trusted me, being there when I needed you, even if I never told you."

He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes down, feeling his face heat up in a deep blush. "Then they died, and I wasn't able to focus on anything, so it was actually on the train coming back that I fully realized that I kept admiring you, thinking about you, like I used to with the girls. I mean, I've never had an issue with my own sexuality; it's just never come up before, but I've always felt a connection with you, and well, I really like you, Yosuke. As... _more_... than my best friend, and I'm not just saying this because my emotions are messed up, and I'm not confused or anything like that."

The silence was thick with tension, and slightly awkward. Souji knew that he could only just wait for Yosuke's reaction, even if it was just rejection, but he'd done his part. He'd taken his chance, and that was all he could do.

Though, dear God, he _hoped_.

Yosuke just stared at his friend, his mind rapidly going over everything Souji had just said. He couldn't believe it, well; maybe he could, but, wow, what a surprise! This was more than he could have hoped for, and it was also really good timing too, since Yosuke himself had just very, very recently, come to his own revelation concerning his quite strong feelings for his best friend.

Damn! He'd really have to stop teasing Kanji now.

He was probably only gay for Souji, but still; teasing Kanji was now a no go.

Bringing his mind forcibly back on track, Yosuke realized that Souji was looking more and more nervous the longer he remained silent, so coming to quick decision, he closed the small distance between them and brought their lips together in a brief, chaste kiss, lingering for only a few moments before moving away.

He grinned like a fool. "I think I like you, too, dude. I think I have for a long time, but I just figured it out as of about five minutes ago."

Souji gave a watery chuckle at that. "That figures. You're okay with it... with how I feel for you?"

"Dude, I wouldn't have kissed you just now if I minded."

"Right. Stupid question."

"Definitely feeling better now?"

Souji laughed at him, the sound low but a little playful, reaching up with one hand to wipe his face clean from his previous tears. "Yeah, actually, I'm doing much better. You meant what you said, about never leaving?"

"Yeah, I meant every word." Yosuke leaned in again, one hand cupping Souji's face as he kissed him again, and while he initiated the kiss, it was Souji who deepened it.

The silver haired teen snaked one hand behind Yosuke's neck, the other clutching at his shirt, holding him as he swiped at the brunet's bottom lip with his tongue, seeking access. It was granted with a quick intake of breathe, and he delved inside Yosuke's mouth with a soft moan, relishing the taste of Yosuke on his tongue, smiling inside when he heard an answering one in return.

After a few moments, Souji pulled away, watching with a satisfied smirk as Yosuke struggled to regain control of his breathing, and he thought he looked rather cute with that pleasant flush delicately staining his face.

It took a minute or so for Yosuke to regain his composure, because, _damn_ , Souji could kiss! Not that he had much experience to compare it with, but that kiss had sent marvelous shivers down his spine, and the sensations had gone straight to his groin, making him shift uncomfortably.

Souji noticed the fidgety movements and laughed, even though he himself was in a similar state of body. Kissing Yosuke was like nothing he'd felt with another person, and he wanted more and could probably do so for hours, but now was not the time to get carried away or anything.

"Thanks for listening, and cheering me up." He said, smiling at the brunet's sudden sheepish grin and he marveled that despite all the tragedy, Souji felt lighter. "And as nice as that was, Nanako could come home at any time, so..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Any making out will have to be done behind closed doors, so as not to corrupt any kids." Yosuke rolled his eyes dramatically as he moved away from Souji, scooting back just a little. "Hey, we should have some snacks, and just chill, you know, watch some TV. You always make the best movie munchies!"

Souji chuckled, feeling a lot more in control with his emotions. "Is that all I am to you? Your personal chef?"

He got a lazy shrug and a sly smirk in response. "Well, it's one of your many uses. SO much better than Mystery Food X, although that kinda goes without saying." Yosuke shuddered dramatically, causing Souji to choke with laughter.

"Really? That's all?"

The brunet shot him a cheeky grin with a wink. "Yup!"

They laughed and started to relax a little, leaning into each other as they enjoyed each other's company in relative comfort. The TV was on, mostly just for background noise as Yosuke brought him up to speed on everything that had happened since he'd left, like how Teddie had gotten lonely after only a few days in his world, and insisted on visiting them often (and practically living at Yosuke's house, or at Kanji's house), or how Kou had been conned into being Chie's taste tester for her cooking as she apparently wanted to improve from the skill level of Mystery Food X. Souji had laughed at that piece of news absolutely delighted for her, since he knew the basketball player had a huge crush on Chie.

It was about an hour or two later, after Souji had cleaned and put away their dishes, while Yosuke changed back into his clean clothes from the previous day, and Nanako had returned home from visiting her friend, that Yosuke decided to approach a slightly more serious subject.

"Hey um, when did you want to let the others know that you're back? You know that everyone's missed you."

The silveret frowned slightly, his brow creasing in thought, and he considered what he knew of his options. Talking to Yosuke and opening up to him about why Souji was back in Inaba had helped him immensely, allowing him to take a step closer in overcoming the tragedy of his parents loss, and also, Igor's words about how uncertain his destiny was gave him a sense of urgency, but every time he thought about the friends he'd made over the past year had him feeling anxious, scared, and exposed. He wasn't ready yet. He didn't need or want their pity. He definitely didn't want to be treated like glass, or something fragile, just because his parents were dead.

But for the time being, he needed the space of relative isolation and peace, to accept that they were forever gone from the rest of his life, that they were never coming back; he needed time still to get over the agonizing pain of their brutal deaths.

If he was going to have the strength enough to counter and overcome the impending and currently unknown but inevitable disaster that was approaching, Souji needed to have the strength of heart to look back and remember seeing them that last time in the hospital, all the blood and gore that often accompanies horrendous crashes without feeling the sharp, jagged shards of agony that was currently attached to their sudden loss. He knew that he would also need the strength and support of all those he called his friends, too. Just... not yet. Not while the pain was still so distressingly sharp.

Turning his attention back to Yosuke, Souji smiled, albeit a little sadly. "Give me at least until the weekend, when Dojima gets back. I think I should be okay for anything by then."

The brunet nodded in acquiescence, matching his sad smile. "Alright, that sounds fair to me."

He stood suddenly, feeling a little awkward, and stretched out his limbs, achy from sitting in one place for so many hours. "Well, I should probably get going now, since I've actually been here all weekend." He grinned roguishly. "Not that it wasn't enjoyable or anything!"

Souji chuckled at that comment. "Okay, smart ass; I'll even see you out the door."

With a grin plastered across his face, Yosuke wandered into the hall by the door, slipping his shoes on as Souji casually leaned up against the wall by the door.

Before Yosuke could open the door to leave, Souji caught his wrist and pulled the slightly shorter teen to him, snaking one hand behind his neck to tangle in his hair as he kissed him. Yosuke's brown eyes drifted close as he responded to the searing kiss, putting a firm grip at Souji's hip, and he groaned in frustration when the other teen released him.

"Just wanted to give you a little kiss good night, Yosuke. I'll see you later, I promise."

Yosuke glared at him a little, with very little real heat behind it as he pouted. "You're pure evil, you know that? Fine, I'm going. I'll call ya!" He fidgeted briefly before leaving the Dojima home with a bounce in his step and a light blush on his face, and Souji watched him leave until he was no longer in sight before closing the front door.

He started pulling ingredients from the fridge and dishes from the cupboards to make one of Nanako's favorite meals as his cousin came thumping downstairs from her room, and she brightened like the sun when she saw him getting ready to make dinner for the two of them.

"Big bro's cooking tonight? Yay!"

Souji laughed at her eager delight. She absolutely warmed his heart, bringing joy and sunlight with everything she did and said. "Yes, Nanako-chan, I'm cooking tonight. Could you please set the table for just you and me?"

Her face fell a little. "Dad's not going to be home?" "Didn't he tell you? He's taking care of some things for me back in the city, since I can't as I'm not of legal age yet. He'll be back though, in a few days."

"Oh." She looked thoughtful for a moment, scrunching up her face adorably. "Yeah, he did say something this morning at breakfast. I guess I forgot."

"That's okay. Everyone forgets things from time to time, even me."

The rest of the evening passed quickly, with Nanako dutifully helping him with the dishes after dinner before settling down on the couch, snuggling as they watched some TV together. All too soon, though, his young cousin was yawning, despite her best efforts, so Souji put her to bed.

He was actually pretty exhausted himself, considering the day's long, emotionally-taxing events, and he could feel sleep creeping in to catch up with him, so Souji got ready himself and he slipped into his futon, sighing deeply as sleep descended on him almost immediately.

 

* * *

 

 

Souji blinked, and he was back in the Velvet Room train car, where Igor was waiting for him, patient like he always was. This time though, Margaret was sitting neatly next to the small, strange man, and she acknowledged Souji's arrival with a small nod and a warm smile.

"We are here visiting in your dreams, so please do not worry, but I said to you during your last visit, I would endeavor to inform you of any new developments as to why you are our continued guest." Igor got straight to the point that strange lilt to his words, reminding Souji of his fortune from before; of the as-yet-unknown ordeal that would come about during the next coming months.

"My Master has brought me up to speed on the events during my brief absence, and it was then that I happen to notice some… unusual occurrences in the Spirit world that lives closely with yours." Margaret spoke up, folding her delicate hands in her lap.

"The Spirit world that runs parallel to your own is starting to experience a… shifting in the balance that keeps both worlds in check. With all that has happened in the past three years; the prevention of the Fall, the loss of the Abyss of Time, and finally, the deaths of two Gods, Ameno-Sagiri and Izanami, it would appear that the bridges that connect the two worlds are beginning to destabilize and fall apart, crumbling from either side." Igor stared at Souji with his intense gaze. "I have as of yet been unable to determine a course of action to prevent these bridges from falling apart completely, and I am looking into ways to repair the damage already done."

"What does that mean? I understand my part in what you've described, but what about the other two events?"

"Ah, you speak of your predecessor, the previous guest. A marvelous guest he was, of the Fool Arcanum, like yourself, and he, too, wielded the power of the Wild Card. He prevented the Fall; an end to humanity and the End of the World, and now he continues to act as the seal keeping Nyx, the personification of Death at bay. I believe there was a cult following for Nyx a few years ago, so you may still be able to find information about her on your own, as his story isn't mine to tell.

"Then, there was the other guest; she was rather unique, being a man-made machine designed to be a weapon, who ultimately chose to live as human. She gained his power of the Wild Card through necessity and inheritance, and by overcoming the Abyss of Time, she was able to give him strength and find her own Answer. However, this is your destiny, not theirs."

"The shift in the balance of the two worlds is essential to each world's survival, meaning that should one be destroyed, the other will soon follow." Margaret was ever calm and composed, though Souji was aware of her affection for him. "This balance needs to be restored, or your world will destroy itself, despite your efforts to allow humanity to live according to its own will and by humanity's choice alone."

"So how do we do that? How do we restore the Balance?"

"Unfortunately, that answer is unknown at this time. You will, however, find the way, and I will most certainly assist in any way that I can. I have very little desire for my own existence to cease. I would suggest that you start listening, and the answer will come to you." Igor smiled that creepy smile of his, and Souji repressed a shudder.

"I am working on something, tool of sorts, that may be of some assistance to you, so when next you visit us here in the Velvet Room, I shall impart with you a gift. Until that moment, have many pleasant dreams." Igor voice faded out as blackness consumed Souji's sight and he drifted off into true slumber.

 

* * *

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor edits. 11/17/2017


	3. A Gift, and a Warm Welcome

Monday, the 16th of April was already looking to be pretty dull for Souji as he didn't have the pleasure of going to school, like Yosuke and Nanako had to, and since his uncle Dojima was likely in the city by now, finishing up with whatever legal and financial affairs were left after his parents' deaths in Souji's stead, as he was still considered a minor and couldn't take care of those few issues himself.

So Souji spent the day being as productive as possible, tackling the house chores and tidying up the place; he did a few loads of laundry for Dojima (who had obviously put it off for a touch too long...), raking out back yard and just relaxing on the porch with a glass of chilled green tea, enjoying the sun, although a book would have made the afternoon perfect.

(Right, none of his books survived the fire...)

There was so much had already happened in the two days (only two days?) he'd been back in Inaba, from the vague, but dire warnings from Igor and Margaret in the Velvet Room, to his new found intimacy in his growing relationship with Yosuke; a lot had happened and it made him wonder if perhaps everything was happening a little too quickly all at once. Though that could be simply from not having the time to relax and mentally reboot his system, like he was now, chilling out in the warm sun with a cool drink.

He'd have to make a batch for Nanako; she'd love the tea.

As Souji watched the birds flutter about the trees close by, he wondered how he would get back to the Velvet Room; would the doorway be there in the Central Shopping District, or would a new doorway crop up somewhere new? He also needed to ask Igor what could be considered unusual that he could use as signs that would indicate the merging of his world and the Spirit world, because if Souji was honest, he didn't have a single what to look out for, although in hindsight, he was also sure that it would be pretty obvious.

His cell phone started ringing, the familiar tones loud in the quiet of the afternoon, and startling him out of his reverie. He fished it out of his pocket and checked the caller ID, smiling when he saw that Yosuke was calling. School must have been over already.

He flipped open the phone, answered the call, brought the phone to his ear. "Hey."

"Hey, is it gonna take any convincing at all for you to come outside and leave the house for a bit? We can go to that park at the top of the hill; should be nice, quiet and secluded." Souji chuckled at Yosuke's tone, he sounded a little excited.

"What, are you trying to seduce me, Yosuke?" He grinned shyly, even if Yosuke wasn't there to see it in person.

"Just meet me there, ya dumbass! You need some fresh air, a walk to stretch your legs, which is exactly why I'll come over there and kick your butt out the door if I have to!" The line suddenly went dead, indicating that Yosuke had hung up on him, and pulled a lighthearted laugh from Souji.

Okay, so he'd go out and leave the house, even if it meant that he might run into someone he knew or one of his friends, which he wasn't quite ready for, but he realized that Yosuke had been worried about him and had probably missed him, so he'd take that chance happily. He went back inside the house, locking the porch door behind him before slipping his shoes on and pulling a jacket on over his t-shirt.

He was just about to leave when he realized that Nanako was going to be home soon, so Souji wrote a quick note to his young cousin, telling her that he'd be out for a little while, but he'd be back in time to make dinner, using a strip on tape to stick the note to the TV. There was no way she'd miss it there.

Locking the front door as he left, Souji slowly meandered through the deserted streets, bypassing all the areas he'd frequented before, and staying well away from the areas he knew his friends liked to visit as well. It was nice, seeing parts of the town he hadn't really seen before, and it was very hard to get lost in such a small town like Inaba, so he wasn't worried about losing his way back home, either.

It was such a nice day out, too. All of the pressures he felt; all of his worries and fears, and the agonizing and numbing grief he still carried just seemed to gently melt away under the warm, hazy heat of the sun, drifting away along the gentle breeze at his back. Souji sighed, a little wistfully, a contented smile gracing his lips, and he felt better than he had in a while, but even with his current good mood in the face of his recent trauma, Souji knew it couldn't last forever. But that wasn't going to stop him from enjoying it while it lasted.

He had just reached the top of the decently large hill overlooking the town, when he saw Yosuke, the brunet was waiting patiently for him, leaning against the old wooden fence overlooking the valley below with his arms folded across his chest, eyes closed and head bobbing as he listened to his music. His foot was softly tapping to the unheard beat like it did when they had fought against the Shadows in the TV world and allowing Yosuke to have a constant soundtrack of the world around him. The sight caused Souji to grin mischievously and he proceeded to sneak up on the other teen, silently easing into position beside him before reaching over and placing a light kiss on Yosuke's cheek.

Yosuke jumped away with a strangled yelp, highly startled as he cast about with surprised wide eyes for Souji. He was blushing furiously, and Souji thought it was rather cute; the red hue was a good look on him.

The brunet pulled his headphones away from his ears and mock-glared at his friend. "Hey, when'd you get here?"

"Only just now. I didn't keep you waiting long?"

Yosuke shook his head. "Nah, I got here only a few minutes ago myself. You're lucky you're not going to school right now, you know that?"

Souji tried to repress his snickers. "I will be soon, as soon as Dojima gets back. Do you miss me giving you all the answers in class?"

He got a playful punch in the arm for his sass. "Damn straight! All of the teachers keep picking on me now, so I actually have to pay attention in class!"

"You make that sound like such a hardship!"

Yosuke sniffed at him with a pout. "Well, not everyone's a genius like you are, you know; you make everything look easy."

"I do not! I just crack open a book every now and then!"

A gentle kiss shut him up as Yosuke had leaned over to do exactly that, angling his mouth to meet Souji's own. He leaned into the kiss, savouring it as a shiver shot down his spine at the gentle touch. They remained side by side, touching from shoulder to hip, leaning back against the old wooden fence behind them, and sharing that sweet kiss that made them both feel warm and safe. This was a different feeling from the lust and attraction, but it was a good feeling, and after Souji pulled away from Yosuke's lips, resting his forehead against the other teen, he couldn't help but smile.

Yosuke was not so secretly (but he hoped!) in awe of that smile. He'd come to recognize several of his partner's more subtle expressions over the past year, and this smile was one he'd only seen a rare handful of times, usually in Nanako's presence because of how much Souji loved his little cousin. But at the same time, this smile that was only for him was a little bit different, filled with an intensity that made him feel light headed, knowing it was meant for only him to see.

Yosuke futilely tried to regain his composure, relaxing against the fence once more, trying desperately to will away the bright red blush he knew he had; he could feel the heat of it on his face. "Alright, 'nough teasing from you! I get enough of that from the girls, thank you very much!"

Souji laughed quietly at this. Oh, he could certainly imagine the girls'... enthusiasm in tormenting Yosuke. "Alright, fine. Have it your way, then."

They spent some of the afternoon just talking about whatever came to mind, of the little inconsequential things, quirks, likes and dislikes (things that you learned over time about your partner); enjoying the other's company and the pleasant weather around them. Unfortunately, the pair of them were so absorbed in each other that both Souji and Yosuke failed to notice someone else making their way up to where the two teens were, probably for the same privacy and solitude that they had sought.

"Senpai?" Souji looked up from Yosuke sharply, turning towards the familiar call, blinking in bemused surprise as Kanji Tatsumi casually strolled up the path, his school bag slung over one shoulder and a plastic shopping bag clutched in one hand.

"Kanji? What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same question, since last I checked, you were back home in the city." The younger teen shrugged carelessly. "So I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that somethin's happened."

Souji suddenly remembered why he hadn't wanted to see his other friends just yet (because they were all so fucking smart; a mental war between pride and annoyance), and with a small wince, he nodded.

"Would it be too much to ask for you not to tell anyone that he's here? He'll explain everything on the weekend." Yosuke said, to Souji's relief, and Kanji frowned at him in concern, trying ti think of all the reasons why his Senpai wouldn't be comfortable to talk about what had happened. All the reasons that Kanji could think of weren't lookin' too good.

"Uh, yeah sure. I can do that, no problem." He shifted nervously, bringing Souji's attention to the shopping bag he held in his hand.

"What's in the bag?"

Kanji flushed a bright red as he got a little flustered, gesturing to the bag. "Oh, uh, you mean this? Um, you remember how I was going to start holdin' classes on how to make the cute stuff?" At Souji's nod, he continued, blushed fading as an excited grin took its place. "Well, classes started three weeks ago, just after you left and are bein' held at the shop, and uh, this is for the next project."

While Yosuke just looked on in confusion, not having been privy to the details involving the evolution of Souji's Emperor Social Link, the silveret decide to give Kanji, who looked very excited, albeit embarrassed, a break. "That's great news, Kanji. The classes are a hit, I take it?"

The bleached blond immediately brightened, his pride in his skill making him look so much younger, like the actually teenager he was. "Yeah, I was actually kinda surprised at how well it's goin'!"

"What... are you two talking about?"

Souji grinned excitedly at Yosuke, and glanced at Kanji, silently asking with a raised brow for permission to tell him. At Kanji's brief, jerky nod, he turned back to his... boyfriend (they hadn't actually labelled themselves). "Since Kanji's actually crazy good at sewing, having grown up in a textiles shop like he has, he's now teaching others how to make the stuff he does. He's really quite good, too; totally has an incredible eye for details."

"How'd you find out he's good at that kind of stuff?"

"He helped a kid by making a doll for him and his friends, and it kind of... spiraled out of control from there. The next thing either of us knew was that he wanted to teach others." Souji positively beamed at Kanji, with a smile as bright as the sun. "I'm very proud of what he's achieved."

Yosuke stared at Kanji, who was steadily going redder in the face at Souji's praise; he'd never expected anything like this! "You make dolls?"

"Yeah, and I make clothes, too. I'm making something for Nanako-chan for her birthday and Christmas, too. 'S no big deal, really." He shrugged again, avoiding Yosuke's eyes, and he fully expected some smart-ass quip about his sexuality, like as was usual with the upperclassman.

"Dude, that's kinda cool, actually." Kanji looked up at Yosuke, startled. The brunet ignored it. "I mean, well, you could make stuff that no one else has."

Souji was trying hard to suppress his grin and subsequent laughter, and he was failing, badly!

"You- you don't think that's, er, gay?"

It was Yosuke's turn to be flustered. "Uh, well, it turns out that I'd be a hypocrite if I did."

And with that, Souji lost his battle against his hilarity and he succumbed to snickering madly, even as he felt a blush touch his cheeks.

Kanji stared first at Yosuke, mouth hanging open, and then at Souji and back again, doing a remarkable impression of a fish out of water. He then cracked a playful grin, almost leering at the smaller brunet. "Yosuke-Senpai, you owe me big time; I'm thinking lunch for the next month!"

Yosuke gawked, before punching Souji's shoulder. "What?! Are you kidding me?! And you! Stop laughing!"

"For all the shit you gave me last year, s'only fair, I think." Kanji continued to grin wide, now in a very good mood. "And I won't tell anyone you're back, Senpai, not 'til you're ready, or that you and Yosuke-Senpai are together, 'though s'not that shocking. See ya!"

Kanji left the two of them there on the hill, turning around and leaving the quiet peacefulness of the empty space, ignoring Yosuke's surprised squawk and Souji's snickers, which had yet to subside, even as he laughed to himself. If Souji-Senpai was happy, then so was he, and it wasn't anyone's freakin' business anyway!

It took several minutes for Souji to calm down and when he did, he looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was getting a little low in the sky, the sun starting to paint the sky in shades of orange and yellow. Time to head back home. He nudged Yosuke lightly, pulling the brunet from his pout fest.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that. Anyway, I should probably start heading home; Nanako will be waiting for me to make dinner tonight." He said and Yosuke brightened, brown eyes sparkling with hungry eagerness.

"You're making dinner tonight? Can I come too?"

"Sure, I'm making enough anyway."

* * *

Dinner was finished, with both Nanako and Yosuke praising Souji's talent, much to his amusement, the dishes were cleaned and Nanako had already been helped with her homework and put to bed, leaving the two teens to relax on the couch in the living room together, much like they had the day before. This time, though, since they had much less chance of getting caught, Souji had Yosuke lying half on his chest, his arms wrapped around the brunet loosely as they watched TV together, contently cuddled nicely.

They had reclined a bit, slowly settling into their more comfortable position, and Yosuke had a smile on his face as he trailed one hand leisurely along Souji's arm, tracing absentminded patterns, his other hand on his partner's knee.

After a while, Souji glanced down at the boy in his arms and he smiled, reaching down and around to place a kiss on Yosuke's temple. Yosuke moved his head back and met his lips in a searing kiss that went straight to their groins, causing Souji to moan softly into his boyfriend's mouth.

He pulled away from the kiss rather reluctantly, flushed. His jeans were feeling just a little bit uncomfortable, and he could see that Yosuke had the same problem. "Let's take this upstairs."

He shifted out from beneath the brunet and pulled him up from the couch, tugging him along upstairs to his room. Yosuke followed willingly, grinning rather shyly, and after they'd slipped into Souji's room and closed the door, locking it behind him, he found himself pushed up against the wall, with the weight of Souji's body covering his own, lips on his, demanding and eager.

He grabbed at him, one hand on his partner's waist, the other clutching his shoulder in a vice-like grip. Souji kept both hands on Yosuke's hips, fingers slipping beneath his shirt to tease at the sensitive skin beneath.

Yosuke gasped at the touch, shuddering from the intensity of his hyper aware body, his head falling to rest on Souji's shoulder. The silveret took the opportunity to nip his way along his neck, swiping his tongue over each tiny bite, reveling in the way the body beneath him shuddered.

Souji pulled away slightly, nuzzling against Yosuke's flushed cheek before kissing him again, softer this time. His jeans were uncomfortably tight, and he could tell that Yosuke was about the same way, and his hormones rapidly were going into overdrive, making everything hypersensitive. He was quickly getting drunk off the sensations as lust continued to cloud his mind.

"...Souji..." Yosuke moaned his name, the sound coming out broken and rushed, as Souji bit down in the junction where neck meets shoulder, suckling a bruise to the heated skin, and he ran his fingers up and down the brunet's sides hungrily.

"Souji... Souji, wait!" At this conflicted protest, he pulled back; keeping his hands in place even as Yosuke shook his head a little, trying to shake the lust-fuelled fog from his head and to regain his ability to think. Both of them were flushed with excitement, and the room was suddenly warm, very warm.

"...Yeah?"

"We need t-to slow down... a little bit, before we go too far too fast. Damn! Where'd you learn to kiss like that?" The brunet trapped in his arms was breathing heavily, and trembling something fierce. His words, however, made sense, and Souji immediately pulled away, moving to collapse in a boneless heap on the couch. Yosuke was left to support himself on the wall, but when his knees were able to work properly again, he joined his partner on the couch.

"Yeah, you're right. I wasn't even thinking." Souji admitted sheepishly with a wry grin, after he'd regained some of his usual grace and composure, and Yosuke could only grin weakly, his laughter strained as he wasn't entirely sure that his voice worked properly.

"I'm just surprised that I was thinking at all! Damn! Dude, you can seriously kiss!"

"What can I say? I'm an all-around genius!" Souji's grin turned sinfully lecherous, making it awfully tempting for Yosuke to continue where they'd left off. For once, he was able to hold himself back with some semblance of self control.

Yosuke glared at him. "If it weren't for the fact that I don't think I can move, I would so punch you right now."

That had Souji attempting to hold in his laughter, but he failed, and soon the brunet joined him, chuckling as he leaned heavily against Souji's legs. Once the laughter died down, Yosuke attempted to stand, only shaking a bit on the way up.

Once up on his feet, he stretched, grimacing as several loud pops were heard from his spine before straightening his clothes. Souji looked at him askance, raising one eyebrow in silent query.

The other teen noticed and he shrugged. "I should be getting home; you know, there's this thing called school that I have in the morning, unlike a certain someone I know."

It took several long minutes for them to get back downstairs, given their current conditions, and that they behaved like young idiots in love, kissing each other at every turn but finally, Yosuke had his shoes and jacket on, his orange and grey headphones in place around his neck, and with a quick smile, he leaned in close to Souji, giving him a kiss before almost bolting out the door, leaving Souji standing there, staring at the spot he'd stood long after he was gone.

With a smile of his own, Souji started to close the door when a sudden thought struck him. It was currently late at night, close to midnight, but not quite, so there should be no one outside and roaming about. He could take this opportunity as his chance to go check out the Shopping District, where he knew stood the door to the Velvet Room. At least, it should still there.

He could go and check in with Igor and Margaret about what exactly he should be aware of and looking out for, because all current happiness aside, Souji was back in Inaba for a reason.

With his decision made, Souji slipped on his own shoes, locking the door behind him as he left, and he jogged through the deserted streets, making it quickly to the Shopping District and seeing nary a soul in sight.

Like he expected, the Shopping District was completely deserted, empty and eerily quiet, with every storefront and window dark. And there it was; the glowing, blue doorway to the Velvet Room, invisible to all else but Souji.

Not that there was anyone else there, but still, the Room was only for him.

In front of the intricate blue door, Souji reached out, hesitating only slightly before grabbing hold of the handle, and pulling the door open.

There was a flash of light, and once his sight returned, he was back in that same train car, sitting comfortably across from Igor and Margaret, who greeted him with a wide, creepy smile and a slight professional nod, respectively.

"And welcome back, my Dear guest! You certainly have been very busy in such a short time, but then so have we." Igor's words brought a flush to Souji's face at the implications, since the only thing he'd been busy with the last days was his spent with Yosuke. He really did not want to know if Igor spied on his every move somehow or how he managed... because that would make things REALLY awkward very quickly...

Margaret just rolled her eyes, apparently far more used to the strange little man's behavior than Souji ever would be. "What my Master means to say is that we have finished constructing a tool for you and your comrades. These should help you in your world."

She opened her grimoir and gestured in the air in front of her and several tarot cards appeared, shimmering into existence, drifting down to land in Souji's waiting hands. Souji flipped one of the large cards over and was startled to see a perfect picture of Izanagi staring back at him. He looked up from the cards, frowning in question.

"Those tarot cards you hold will be the key in releasing your ability in a world that does not hold well with the supernatural. You will still need to discover a way to activate your power, but you have the means of doing so available to you, as you will discover with time soon enough."

Souji nodded his understanding, flipping through the rest of the cards. There was Yosuke's Susano-o, Yukiko's Amaterasu, Kanji's Rokuten Maoh, Rise's Kanzeon, Teddie's Kamui, Naoto's Yamato Takeru, and Chie's Suzuka Gongen; all his friends' Personas staring up at him from the cards in perfect detail.

There were also a few blanks cards, which he held up for Igor to see. "What about these ones? What's the deal with these?"

Igor smiled at him, pleased with himself. "I can tell you that your Social Links play a monumental role in the coming year. Choices will have to be made, and I believe that you will be needing those extra cards. Keep them safe with you, at all times, just in case of an unforeseen emergency."

He nodded again, and remembered why he'd come here in the first place. "Can you tell me what I should be aware of? What signs should I look out for? Last year, the fog thickened the closer we came to battling Ameno-Sagiri."

"Things will start out small, and harmless." Margaret said. "Look for odd lights and ghostly sightings, especially around the more spiritual places. Anything and everything that would be considered as out of the ordinary is surely to be a sign, and the severity of these supernatural occurrences will be relatively easy to gauge and will likely worsen as the year progresses, until, possibly, you and your friends are trapped in a hellish nightmare of a world."

Oh.

Well, that was reassuring.

Souji stood from his seat, carefully tucking the cards away into his jacket close to his heart and the Room began to fade as he took his leave of it, having found at least some answers, even though he now had many more questions.

Then he was back in the street of the eerily silent Shopping District and a quick look at his watch told him it was now past midnight. With a heavy sigh, Souji headed home, dragging his feet a little and feeling the need to crawl into his futon for some much needed sleep.

* * *

The rest of the week passed fairly quickly the days blurring into each other, luckily without incident, although Yosuke had looked a little on edge when leaving Souji's house, looking around as though he could hear something in the shadows of the evening, something he dismissed whenever Souji questioned him, and Dojima was back late Friday night, just in time to put Nanako to bed. His uncle had also thoughtfully done some shopping while in the city, purchasing clothing and some better quality furniture for Souji, like a wooden bookcase the replace the cheaper metal one he'd been using before, and Dojima had had copies made of all the family photos he could find of Souji's late parents, a mixing a few photos from his own family in, while covertly gathering any photos taken during the previous year from his friends.

Souji couldn't help cry with joy as he hugged Dojima with a tight grip when he found the collage of photos lining the wall above his bed, even pulling Yosuke into the hug once he'd found out that Dojima had enlisted his boyfriend's aid in getting him to leave the house long enough to set the whole gesture up.

Dojima had successfully made his home into Souji's home, and for that alone, Souji would be forever grateful, knowing he had a place he belonged.

But while that Friday was the happiest he'd been since his parents' deaths, the next day, early Saturday morning, Souji sent Yosuke a text message, asking the brunet to collect their friends after school was over for the day and to bring their immediate friends over to his house, so he could break the news to them that he was back in town, and to inform them of his purpose to reinstate the Investigation Team and to speak of the Velvet Room's warning.

He just hoped that they wouldn't overreact that he hadn't told them sooner, Chie, Teddie and Rise especially. They'd understand why he hadn't, but those three were especially boisterous.

He also hoped that Yukiko wouldn't just assume that he would be interested in dating her again, even though he'd broken up with her before Christmas, choosing instead to be just friends.

That could be awkward.

Yosuke had texted him back on his way to school, ensuring that he'd drag their unusual group by to the house, using much colorful language as per Yosuke's way, and implying the use of vague threats and/or bribes if need be; Souji couldn't help but feel that Yosuke would also seek compensation for any bribes he'd have to use.

So Souji settled himself in his room to wait, after distracting himself by choosing to hang a couple tasteful art scrolls (another gift from Dojima) on the rather limited space on the walls in his room, unpacking his new clothes, then by feeding scraps to the neighborhood's stray cats (so cute!) but he ended up sitting on his couch fidgeting ceaselessly, staring at the clock, watching the seconds turn to minutes turn to hours.

Despite his nervous energy, Souji must have dozed off at some point, because his phone beeping an alert, notifying him of an incoming text message jolted him awake. Fumbling for his cell, Souji smiled a little anxiously at the text from Yosuke, informing him that he and their friends were on their way.

He quickly went downstairs, gathering bottles of water and putting on a pot of green tea for when his friends arrived, and he made sure the door was unlocked for them as well. He resigned himself to wait out the last few minutes and sent a text to Yosuke, telling him about the door.

Souji knew he working himself up, but he was really starting to dread the reactions of his friends, especially Rise and Teddie; their exuberance was a little overwhelming at times, especially when the two of them were together.

Or maybe he just had an overactive imagination.

The front door opening broke through his thoughts, and he grinned slightly as he heard Yosuke urging patience. Then he heard Chie's honest voice, quickly followed by Kanji's rough tones and he rose from his spot on the couch to meet them.

"But Senpai!" That would be Rise, her words ending on a higher pitch. "Are we visiting with cute Nana-chan again? I don't see her shoes."

"My Nana-chan's not home to see me? That won't do at all, no, not at all!" Souji had to grin at Teddie's drama. It was a good thing that, clearly, some things never changed.

He waited until they had come fully into the house, standing clustered by the kitchen before revealing himself. They hadn't noticed him at all, yet.

"Actually," Several heads whipped around to stare at him in various degrees of shock, though Kanji's smirk was sly. "Nanako's not the one you'll be visiting today."

"SENPAI!" Rise and Naoto both collided with him in bone-crushing hugs, knocking the air from his chest, and he just barely managed to brace himself to stay on his feet from the onslaught.

"SENSEI!" Ok, he spoke too soon. Souji blinked up at the ceiling before casting his smile at the three people on top of him. He was now firmly stuck on his back, on the floor, having only narrowly missed hitting the coffee table on his way down with Teddie's extra weight and force of momentum.

"Com'on, let the guy up! You can maul him later!" Kanji saved him, as he and Yosuke pulled the younger girls and Teddie off of him, giving Souji some space to breathe again.

"When did you get back? How long are you staying?" Chie asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet in her excitement as they manoeuvred their way to the living room, settling down in their usual spots while Souji took the opportunity to hand out the waters and serve tea to both Naoto and Yukiko before making some of the tea chilled for himself and Yosuke.

"Um, I'm not going back. I'm here permanently." Souji sank down onto the couch, smiling as Yosuke claimed the seat beside him on his left, pressed up against him from hip to knee, while Rise attached herself to his arm on his right. He knew she, while sometimes outrageously flirtatious, was mostly harmless in her affections.

As his words sank in, the others looked amongst themselves in confusion, their keen minds running through the possibilities, and Souji sighed heavily as they grew more concerned; not really wanting to talk about exactly why he was back in Inaba, even though Yosuke had already helped him through most of the pain attached to the disastrous event.

"Something bad happened, didn't it? Are your parents okay?" Yukiko asked and Souji winced, flinching minutely.

Once he started talking about his brief time back in the city, the words didn't stop, pouring from Souji's lips as he explained in limited detail how his parents had died, and about the fire that took his previous home from him, briefly touching on his own emotional state of the time.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Chie looked about to cry, like Rise and Teddie were doing, but then she blinked, turning to Yosuke. "Yosuke, how did you know he was back?"

He flashed a nervous grin at her direction. "I was here, watching over Nanako-chan for Dojima-san when he arrived."

"How are you holding up, Senpai? I know that the loss of your parents is always hard and one of the more difficult tragedies to deal with, even at the best of times." Naoto's soft concern reminded Souji that she, too, had lost her parents in a similar fashion, a car crash, although it had happened when she was much younger.

"Actually, if it wasn't for Yosuke being there, I'd probably still be an emotional, sobbing wreck right now." He grinned at the brunet's embarrassed flush. "So don't be too mad at him for keeping my arrival a secret. Also, Kanji knew too."

"Hey!"

Rise pouted, crossing her arms across her chest as she mock-glared accusingly at the bleached blond. "You knew and you didn't say anything? But when did you find out?"

"Uh, I only know a coupla days after he got back. But even I could see that he wasn't ready to deal with us yet, so I let him be."

"That was remarkably perceptive of you, Kanji." Naoto said, the smallest hint of a playful smile touching the corners of her lips.

"Hey!"

Souji chuckled at their antics. He had missed this; the camaraderie and the teasing, but he wasn't finished yet. "As good as it is to be back, despite the circumstances, there's something else I would like to discuss."

Even Yosuke turned puzzled eyes back to him. "Huh? I thought that was the biggest issue we had."

Souji shook his head, growing serious once again."No, I've learned recently that there's always something; I've received some disturbing information from a very reliable source that was essential to our success in December, and again in March; something big will happen this year, as a direct result of our victory over Izanami." He paused, thinking back to Igor's words about the other guests of the Velvet Room. "Actually, our battle with her tipped the scale, so to speak."

"Senpai, what are you talking about?" Rise asked softly, hesitantly; worry starting to flicker in her eyes. "I haven't sensed anything out of the ordinary."

"There were two other major events within the last three years, that I don't have the full understanding of, which has caused a shifting in the balance between worlds, specifically our world, and the Spirit world." Souji shrugged, not really despairing at the lack of knowledge. Like Igor had said, those events weren't directly involved with his destiny. "The balance between our worlds is a very delicate thing, and I have been told that if that balance isn't somehow restored, both worlds will end up being destroyed, crumbling one after the other."

"Wha- Why?" Chie asked anxiously, her eyes wide. The others had similar expressions of anxiety as they waited for Souji to answer.

"I don't know yet. All I know is that we have about a year or less before the end of the world."

Yukiko's brow was furrowed as she voiced her thoughts. "But how can we stop it? How can we stop that from happening, especially since we don't know what to fight?"

"Are there any options open for us to prevent this catastrophe, if at all possible?" Naoto asked him, her vocal pitch dropping an octave as she fell back into the recognizable role of her 'Detective Prince' facade.

Souji shook his head, shrugging once again. "I don't know yet; I have no details yet as to what we could be facing. But what I do know is that we will need our Personas, and that they are important to our success."

"Senpai, how do you know all this?"

The silveret glanced down at the girl on his right side. "I don't know how to explain it, Rise. But while we were investigating last year, I was granted access to a place, a pocket dimension of sorts, called The Velvet Room. Inside were two people who helped me with all my different Personas. I trust them both."

Yosuke nodded once, his smile grim and strained. "If you trust them, then I will too, Partner. It's easy as that."

"Thank you." The glance at Yosuke had a lot of hidden things he wasn't quite comfortable yet to say aloud. "I haven't been out much since I came back, so I have to ask; have any of you seen anything... strange, recently? Has there been anything even remotely out of the ordinary, no matter how silly it may be."

The others glanced about amongst themselves, looks passing between the members of the group as they silently asked each other that very same question.

"Anything?"

Souji looked at Yukiko, frowning slightly at her sudden nervousness. "What is it, Yukiko?"

"Um, well, I-I've only seen it once, in the hot springs at the Inn, and it was getting late, so I thought I'd only imagined it, but I did see some odd lights, like wisps the other night. Like how the old stories and legends talk about lost souls." A nervous blush was settling in on her features. "There were only a couple, and they disappeared quickly enough, but the rest of the staff at the Inn has seen them as well."

"That's the start, then. I'd like you all to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, and please let me know about anything you see or hear. Maybe even look into ghost stories."

"You got it, Sensei!" Teddie grinned at him, eager to help out his friends. "I'll try my beary best!"

Souji smiled at the Shadow in human form. "Thanks, Teddie."

"Yeah, we can do that!" Chie nodded once, firmly in agreement. "Hey, when are you coming back to school?"

"Um, I think Dojima set it up so that I officially go back on Monday. So you'll definitely see me there."

Further conversation was prevented by the opening of the front door, with Nanako's giggling drifting inside to them, and Souji could make out the distinct tones of his uncle's voice as well.

Then Nanako rushed into the living room, her little arms wrapped around a shopping bag, vegetables poking out the top, with her father right behind her with the rest of the bags from the obvious shopping trip. Nanako's face lit up brightly at the sight of all of Souji's friends sitting there in the house.

"All of Big Brother's friends are here! Are all of you going to stay for dinner?"

Chie laughed nervously. "Um... not exactly, Nanako-chan. I don't think your dad has enough food in the house to feed all of us."

"Sorry, Nanako-chan, but maybe we'll eat together the next time. We were just visiting your big brother." Yukiko flashed her gentle smile at the young girl, rising to her feet quickly. "It would be rude if we didn't give your dad at least some warning before we barged in for dinner."

Nanako looked put out for a minute as she thought about it. "Okay, I guess. But you promise to come back soon and visit with me, right?"

Teddie leapt to his feet, veritable sparkles dazzling everyone. "Of course we will, my dear Nana-chan! We'll come back really soon, and play with you. We can go to Junes again!"

Souji smiled fondly as his younger cousin laughed and nodded eagerly. He caught the relieved look on his uncle's face, turning his smile into a teasing grin, which earned him a mock-scowl in return.

"Okay, thank you all for coming by, but I'm kicking you all out now." His grin belied the bluntness of his words as he ushered and herded his friends out of the house.

"Aww, but Senpai...!" Rise flashed her million-watt smile and rushed to engulf him in a rib-crushing hug before she tugged at Teddie's arm, dragging him down the street the two chatting together animatedly. Kanji started walking away with Naoto at his side, chatting away in hushed tones as she listened, while Chie and Yukiko both bid him goodbye with a wave as they slowly headed in the general direction of Yukiko's home at the Amagi Inn.

This left only Yosuke standing beside him, watching as the others left and disappeared down the street before glancing at Souji, a playful smirk tilting his lips.

"Well, Partner, I'll see you at school on Monday. Can't wait to start having the right answers in class again!" Before Souji could offer a witty retort, Yosuke leaned in quick, placing a feather-light kiss on Souji's cheekbone, and dashing off towards his own home at a jog, grinning over his shoulder at the silveret.

Souji grinned at his antics before he retreated back into the house to clean up the tea and other debris from the informative visit and to get started on dinner (Nanako requested curry) for the night. The Dojima household was filled with giggling from Nanako as Souji and Dojima bantered throughout the evening, the tantalizing scent of curry filled the house with plentiful warm feelings; it reminded Souji that this was his family now, and his friends stood by him, like always, and most of all, he had the undying support and affection of his best friend, someone that Souji was growing to treasure and adore.

Despite everything, things were looking up.


	4. The Merging of Worlds

The morning was absolutely lovely, the sun shining brightly without a single cloud in the clear blue sky as Souji walked sedately along the Samegawa floodplane on the way to Yasogami High. There were other students walking down the same path, each in their own world as they passed by to catch up with friends or dawdled behind and Souji smiled, remembering the last time he'd walked amongst his peers, almost two months ago, and he glanced around searching for some familiar faces.

He quickly spotted Rise and Kanji walking together ahead of him, the bleached blond towering over the pop star, so Souji picked up his pace and jogged over.

"Rise! Kanji!"

When he got close enough to the pair, the teen idol pounced, latching herself onto his arm with glee, even as Kanji exaggerated his eye roll. "Senpai! Oh, I'm so glad you're back; you have no idea! This year's going to be great!"

"Yeah, I'm a senior this year, too. Big year for me; can't fuck this up." He winced as Rise elbowed him in the ribs for his language, earning herself a pout.

"You've got nothin' to worry about, Senpai." Kanji lightly punched Souji on his unoccupied shoulder, causing him to stumble. The kid really didn't know his own strength. "Chie-Senpai swears that you're a genius in the classroom; top of the class, even."

Souji grinned at his taller underclassman. "Yeah, she would know; last year, I was giving both her and Yosuke the answers every time they were called upon by the teachers."

The three of them had reached the front gates of the school, where most of the others from their group were waiting for them off to the side, so as to not block anyone with their large crowd.

"Hey, partner!" Yosuke waved exuberantly to them, his everlasting, easy-going grin in place; and for a moment, Souji felt that he looked like sunshine, all bright and cheerful enthusiasm. "Guess what? We're in the same class again this year!"

"Yeah? Do we actually have a normal homeroom teacher this time?"

Chie pulled a face in disgust, shaking her head. "Nah, Kashiwagi got moved to the senior year classes; probably 'cause we're used to her weirdness already, and so as to not terrorize the younger kids. We saw her on the way here, and the whole time she couldn't stop babbling to herself about having you back in her class; that's how we knew, and honestly, I gotta say, it was kinda disturbing. I'd never have believed the rumors that she actually had a crush on you, Leader."

"Okay, first of all; ick, that's really gross, Chie. And secondly, you make it sound like you don't want me here."

"Wha-! No, no! That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

Souji laughed at Chie's distraught expression "Yeah, I'm just messing with you, don't worry about it."

"It is good to hear you speak, Senpai; I recall you spoke very little last year." Naoto spoke up from beside Yukiko, and Souji was somewhat surprised to see the young detective in the girl's uniform, rather than the boy's uniform she'd donned the previous year; she was very cute in the girls' uniform, though.

"Naoto! You look good! Embracing your femininity?"

She blushed a very pretty red, but she smiled at him. "Yes, it's actually somewhat of a relief, to be honest."

Further conversation was cut off as the first bell rang, and they hurried into the school building, splitting off in groups for their respective classrooms. Souji broke away from the group, telling Chie he'd be in class as soon as he finished up with some last minute administrative paperwork. She promised to pass the message along to the others for him, and he thanked her.

The late bell rang as Souji knocked on the faculty office door, and upon seeing him, one of the school secretaries immediately ushered him over to an out of the way table where some last minute forms awaited him. He sighed, resigned at the stack of paperwork; paperwork was always tedious.

He finished it as quickly as possible, his pen flying across the pages and about ten minutes later, Souji knocked on the door of class room 3-2, where the rest of his friends and fellow students were already seated, waiting for the day to begin.

The rest of the morning classes were a bit of a blur, as he quickly settled in a familiar routine of writing notes and answering questions, but by the lunch hour, Souji was already hearing whispers and rumors flying about weird lights at night and at the now-popular Shrine in the Shopping district. He resolved to visit the Shrine as soon as he had a spare moment.

The bell sounding the lunch hour rang, breaking the ceaseless monotony of classes and Souji had just risen from his seat beside Chie's desk when the classroom door was noisily slammed open with a bang, revealing the grinning faces of Kou Ichijo and Daisuke Nagase, his friends from the basketball and soccer teams respectively and sharing his Strength Arcana Social Link.

"Whoa! Dude, you never told us you were coming back so soon!" Daisuke was at his side instantly, slapping his back enthusiastically in greeting; the hits were hard enough that Souji was grateful that he was sitting at his desk still.

"Hey! Don't knock him over, you big lug!" Kou shoved the soccer player away, knocking his best friend with his shoulder, and Souji could only grin bright at their antics.

"To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting to be back so soon, but some... pretty bad stuff happened," He shrugged absently, not bothering to go into the details. "And here I am."

Kou leaned over and around Daisuke, placing one hand on Chie's shoulder, smiling as she acknowledged him warmly. "That's cool, man, we get it. So Souji; are you coming back to the basketball team for this season?"

The silveret shrugged again; he hadn't really decided on anything to do with his previous extracurriculars. "I don't know yet; I'm still getting settled in."

"That's cool. The season doesn't start for another two weeks, so take your time."

"Hey, if you're free after school," Daisuke said. "How about we head over to Aiya's; be just like old times."

Souji nodded. "Yeah, sounds good."

The two athletes didn't stick around too much longer after that, with Kou speaking quietly to Chie for a few moments before leaving with the soccer player back to their own classroom. Chie and Yukiko watched them leave with girlish grins before bursting into loud infectious giggles, eliciting inquiring stares from the boys beside them, even as they smiled at the girls' good mood.

"So, Chie," Souji began, a smirk already in place. "Something I should know about? Do I need to have a talk with Kou about his intentions?"

The girl flushed bright red as Yukiko dissolved into her infamous hyena laughter and Yosuke started snickering quietly. "Um, uh, well not that it's any of your business, but Kou-kun has offered to be my taste-tester, so I could practice my cooking, and he'll train with me, too. I actually like him so don't total jerks, alright?"

"And he's still alive, after your cooking?! Glad to see that you must be improving, then."

Chie shot Yosuke a dirty look and punched him in the shoulder, hard. "Of course he's still alive, you idiot!"

"Well, we've had rather... unfortunate experiences with your cooking, Chie... remember of Mystery Food X?" Yosuke asked as he rubbed at his bruised arm, grimacing as the memories resurfaced.

Yukiko's giggling faded as she pouted. "You're never going to let that go, are you guys?"

"Only when either of you can successfully open a five star restaurant!"

"Souji-kun! You're back!" That was all the warning Souji had before several female bodies tackled him, nearly toppling him from his chair as he flailed for a good grip on his desk.

"Hey there, girls!" Souji slowly untangled himself from the clinging octopus arms of Yumi Ozawa and Ai Ebihara, smiling softly as Ayane Matsunaga stepped back to give him some room. "I take you're happy to see me?"

"Of course we are, you silly thing! Uh, it's good to see you again, though!" Yumi flashed him a brilliant smile, moving to stand beside Ayane.

"You, mister, never called me to say you were coming back, so," Ai poked his nose, causing Souji to blink. "You have to help me in getting Daisuke's attention!"

Yosuke turned to the light brunette, surprised. "You like Daisuke Nagase, the soccer player?" He leaned casually against Souji's desk, surreptitiously laying his claim on the silveret, because he knew their history together and the pair had always seemed close.

Yes, Yosuke was willing to admit that he might be a tiny bit jealous of Ai, because hell; the girl was very pretty and very smart.

"Well, yeah! But he's a little dense when it comes to girls." Her sharp eyes flickered between Yosuke and Souji and she smiled wickedly. She leaned in closer to the brunet, checking to make sure that Yumi and Ayane were busy chatting to Chie and Yukiko, none of whom had noticed Yosuke's subtle display of affection. "And you won't be fooling anyone if you make it any more obvious, dear. I think it's cute, though. Never would have figured you two for being that way, but you both look good together."

Only the two boys heard Ai's softly spoken words, but Yosuke was already red enough in the face to worry about fainting while Souji managed to keep his embarrassment down to a light pink tinge that dusted his fair skin, the effect barely noticeable.

"Just please don't tell anyone, ok? I'm not quite ready to advertise our relationship just yet. It's still very new and all that." Souji said; his voice low and Ai nodded in understanding, smiling warmly at the pair.

"That's cool. I'll keep my teasing down to a minimum, then."

"I'd appreciate it, thanks."

The three girls left the class room then, as the bell signaling the end of the lunch hour rang, and the school day continued on with dull afternoon classes in its monotonous fashion, falling back to the familiar routine that had been developed the previous year.

Throughout the rest of Souji's afternoon classes, his teachers were ecstatic to have him back, and continued to call upon for him for correct answers for the rest of the afternoon, much to the collective relief of his fellow students, thankful for the reprieve.

It was actually somewhat of a relief for Souji when classes let out for the remainder of the day and he was able to leave the school behind with his friends in tow, manoeuvring through the throngs of students heading home. He smiled as Rise joined them with Naoto and Kanji in tow, throwing her arms around Chie and Yukiko, the girls laughing brightly in the open air

Kou and Daisuke ambushed him and Yosuke just outside the front gates of Yasogami High, dragging the two of them to Aiya's Chinese restaurant with only a greeting for the girls they left behind, chatting about the day and upcoming practice sessions for their respective sports teams.

It was only when they were seated in the restaurant, their food had been ordered and placed in front of them that Kou revealed the reason behind the ambush.

Souji, for his part, had realized almost immediately that whatever was going on with his two friends of the Strength Arcana was serious when Daisuke nudged his friend to start him into talking.

"So, Souji... since I know that you and your friends have a penchant for the bizarre, having been involved somehow with all that shit that went down last year with all the murders and everything," Kou spoke slowly, picking his words carefully. "I was hoping that I could come to you about something... odd, since you're the only one I can go to."

"How do you know we were involved?" Yosuke asked, frowning.

"It wasn't that difficult, to be perfectly honest; you two know most of the people who disappeared for up to a week, or had some kind of interaction with the ones that were killed; I started putting it together when that cute cousin of yours, Nanako-chan, went missing." This drew alarmed looks from both Yosuke and Souji, and Kou raised his hands to forestall anything they were about to say. "But then, the murders and disappearances stopped, and everyone was ok after that, so I didn't bother to say anything."

"So, if you figured out that we were connected with the case, what's stopping anyone else from doing the same?" Yosuke asked, near panicking. He clenched his fists tightly on the table. "Damn it! We were so careful, too!"

Daisuke waved his chopsticks lightly, shaking his head. "Because only Kou and I knew all of you as a group; Yukiko Amagi and Chie Satonaka have been best friends almost since they were little, and are in your class; of course you know each other. Kanji Tatsumi is seen as a thug turning his life around by taking you," The soccer player pointed his chopsticks in Souji's direction. "On as a mentor of some kind. Weirder stuff has happened, so it wasn't so out of place."

"Naoto Shirogane knows you through your uncle, Detective Dojima." Kou continued where Daisuke left off. "And it continues on like that through the rest of your core group of friends. But because you've become so popular, with the clubs you joined last year, and you're a genius to boot, well, all the connections leading to Souji seem coincidental at best. Though I'm positive Dojima-san was figuring it out, too."

"And then there was something strange that happened the day before you left." Seeing the two teens across from him tense, Daisuke smirked wryly. "Something happened that day, on March 20th, and it was important."

"Wha- What do you mean?" Souji asked, recalling his battle against Izanami-no-Okami, especially after his friends has fallen, dragged under to death by grisly skeletal hands.

"I have no idea what happened that day, and I didn't remember any of it until just the other night, but somehow you needed us, I think. I remember thinking about you, and how you helped and supported us throughout the year. Because of you, my friendship with Daisuke has never been stronger, and you helped me deal with my own self-esteem with my family."

"I think we gave you our support, a... a wish to give you a shoulder to lean on for strength, if you needed it; our strength was yours to take." Daisuke shrugged, his food almost forgotten in front of him. "And you don't have to say anything if you don't want to, either."

Souji smiled weakly, relieved. "Good, because I don't think I have the words, and I don't think you'd believe me if I tried. You're right, though; I did need both of you, and you guys helped when I needed it most."

The four of them ate their almost cold food in a companiable silence, but as soon as they were done, bowls tucked away to the side, Kou turned back to Souji. "Ok, since we jkinda went off on a tangent, I haven't told you yet."

"Uh, told me what?"

"I'm not sure if you've heard anything yet, but I've been seeing some pretty weird things around the estate. It's kind of cool, but still weird." Kou sighed heavily. "My family has been in Inaba for a long time, for generations, so the estate we live on is old as hell; some of the trees in the back gardens have been there, untouched, for at least a few hundred years, probably more. Well anyway, it's only been in the last day or two, but at night, I've been seeing some strange lights. They look like floating balls of white-blue fire, drifting around without a breeze."

"He even brought me by last night to check, I saw them too, like being in a fairytale. It freaked the shit out of me." Daisuke cut in.

"Thanks, numbskull."

"Anytime."

"Anyway, I've also seen some shadows in the koi ponds, just beneath the surface, when nothing's there."

Souji folded his hands together on the table, tapping his fingers together as he thought of Igor's warnings and of Yukiko's stories about strange lights at the Inn. This had to be another sign. As he stared at his two friends across the table, Souji decided that he could trust them with what was happening, because if this was going to be as bad as was forewarned, there'd be no hiding what was happening from anyone, and Souji was going to need all the help he could get.

"It's the supernatural; ghost lights and spirits, just like the really old stories. The walls between our world and the spirit world are starting to fade and disappear, merging our two worlds together. This is a bad thing, and it kind of relates to what was happening last year, and especially to what happened on March 20th." Souji knew he was taking a huge risk by telling his fellow athletes even this much of the truth, but since they had come to him in the first place, he was willing to take that risk.

Neither Kou nor Daisuke responded right away, a little stunned. They certainly hadn't expected this, but Kou could appreciate Souji's honesty.

"I need you guys to please keep your eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary. I've been warned that this could escalate from the harmless ghost lights to something far, far worse and very dangerous. I just don't know what, yet."

With a frustrated sigh, Kou rubbed at his eyes. "Dude, this is some heavy shit you're involved in now."

Souji grinned at that. "Heh, you're telling me."

"Why?"

Yosuke blinked at Daisuke. "Huh? Why what?"

"Why you? No offense, but what's so special about you guys?"

Souji took a few moments to collect his words to answer. "We are the Seekers of Truth, and we have found our true selves, and by searching out the truth from the beginning, overcoming all the obstacles to cross in our path. We freed ourselves from the fog of deceit and ignorance, seeking that truth, and not even gods could hold us back." Yosuke smiled grimly at his carefully chosen words, appreciating the subtlety that gave the athletes across from them no details of the hardships they endured. With one hand underneath the table, he gently squeezed the silver-haired teen's knee.

"That was smooth, my friend." Kou said with a grin. "You didn't say a word of a lie, but you didn't give us anything, either. Ok, I won't ask again, until you're ready to tell us."

Souji chuckled, nodding his thanks. "I was serious before; you wouldn't me if I tried to tell you; not yet, anyway."

"Hey, that's a fair point; but we gotta jet. Kou's helping me with my English homework tonight." Daisuke threw some money down on the table with a scowl at the aforementioned homework, effectively paying for all their food before standing from his seat.

"Sure thing, I'll probably end bullying Yosuke into doing his own. We'll see you two in school tomorrow."

"Basketball team this year; think about it!" Kou leaned in close, his voice dropping low. "Also, we're glad you two found each other; talk about finally!" Then they were gone out the door of the restaurant, leaving Souji and Yosuke alone, both of them red in the face.

"I sure didn't see that coming."

"I know."

"Do you think anyone else has made the connections? With us, or with the case last year?" Yosuke asked softly, glancing sideways in Souji's direction.

He could only shrug. "Dunno. Dojima already had his suspicions; kept trying to interrogate me every so often, but after we saved Nanako-chan, I think he stopped caring. And I'm pretty sure he already knows about you and I, and couldn't care less."

"Huh. Go figure." With a sudden grin brightening his face, Yosuke grabbed his schoolbag as he stood from the table. "Hey, did you want to go the shrine? That strange fox that lives there will be happy to see you; she's got kits now, too. Those fuzzy things are too cute for words."

He smiled warmly at the brunet, grabbing his own bag to follow after him. "Sure, we can do that; I'll be happy to see her, too."

It was a short walk across and up the street from Aiya's restaurant to the shrine, and the sun was just about setting, shedding the sky with darkening dusky light. As the two teens walked up the steps, Souji couldn't help but smile at how well-maintained the shrine and its grounds had become since helping the Hermit fox with fulfilling the Emma requests.

It was also quite apparent to him of the merger between worlds, with the flickering ghost lights drifting around; straining his smile. It felt like he was literally walking in a fairytale setting.

"It's gotten pretty nice here, even with the weird supernatural stuff. It wasn't that long ago that this place was practically run down!"

"Yeah, our friend living here was quite worried. Hey, do you see that?" Souji pointed to the lanterns that hung at the entrance at the top of the steps. They were lighting themselves, which was strange enough, but that wasn't what had caught the silver-haired teen's attention.

"Holy crap, that's blue fire!" Yosuke swore, eyes wide as he took in the sight of the eerie blue flames that were currently flickering inside of each and every single paper lantern.

"Yeah..."

"That's another sign. By the way, how long have you known to watch for these signs?"

"I was first informed on the train ride here. I only got the specifics a few days ago."

"Oh. This is happening a bit fast, isn't it?"

"Maybe a little but we're still safe."

"Somehow, not very reassuring."

"I get the feeling this will be it for a little while, maybe a few weeks before it starts getting bad."

"Again, not very reassuring."

The two of them ventured further onto the grounds of the Shrine, the holy place looking utterly alien as the blue fire cast everything in a stark, eerie light, and Souji could barely repress a shiver as he cast his gaze about, feeling as though several sets of eyes watching him and Yosuke, although there was nothing there and no one in sight.

A sharp yip rang out in the eerie quiet, effectively catching their attention as a familiar large fox, a vixen, still scarred and wearing the red apron of the shrine, bounded over to them from under the small porch of the front steps leading into the actual shrine monument itself.

Souji knelt down on one knee, bringing himself down face to face with the intelligent creature. With a smile, he patted the fox on her head before giving her ear scratches, his smile growing as she yipped in pleasure, cunning eyes closing in bliss.

"The shrine looks a lot better now that people are taking care of it. You must be very glad for that."

The fox nodded as though she understood him, and she grabbed his sleeve in her muzzle gently, tugging him closer to the shrine steps from which she'd emerged to greet them. As she pulled Souji along, he could hear something rustling in what had to be her nest.

Yosuke followed behind them with a gentle grin, kneeling down beside Souji as his furry friend nudged three small kits from the makeshift burrow beneath the steps. He laughed as Souji's face lit up with pure joy as he started playing with the little creatures, wonder sparkling in his grey eyes.

"Those kits are actually pretty cute." Yosuke said, picking one up as another nuzzled at his knee and Souji grinned, lightly scratching behind one of the third fox cub's ears.

"If anything happens here that makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, you're more than welcome to bring your little ones over by my house," Souji spoke to the fox and she nodded sagely. "Nanako would love to have you around, and I'm sure she'd like the company."

The two Persona users left the shrine shortly after that, bidding farewell to the Hermit fox before the night truly set in, parting ways with a chaste and quick kiss before going back to their respective homes.

That night, as Souji lay in bed, his mind wandered over the events of the past week or so, since his arrival back in Inaba, and the tragedy that prompted his return. He felt like something was guiding events into play, though for what purpose, he had no idea. There was something more out there for them, and he dreaded the coming events, and as he finally drifted off into a dreamless slumber, the faintest whispering of voices went unnoticed inside his mind.

The next couple of days passed rather quietly, with no major disturbances to disrupt the already dull and monotonous routine of school. The rumors of the supernatural continued to grow as the sightings increased and more and more people witnessed the undeniable evidence, like the ghost lights and blue fire, but so far for the time being, everything was harmless, for which Souji was immensely glad and relieved for.

He knew it wouldn't last forever. Whatever was happening in Inaba had left them completely blind, which Souji did not like one bit. Even the murders last year had given them a starting point to go off of; the merging of two worlds wasn't exactly something they could fight blindly, but there wasn't much he could do about it right now.

Souji knew he was lucky that the merger was starting off small and harmless; he knew his luck couldn't last.

He wasn't going to let stop him.

The world wasn't going to die on his watch.


	5. Higher Stakes

As April drew to a close, supernatural sightings had almost become normal to the town of Inaba, now an everyday occurrence that sparked little attention from the desensitized populace, save for those few that knew that something worse was on the horizon. It always astounded Souji in how quickly the townspeople adapted to and didn't care about the stranger things that went in Inaba, both now and last year with the serial murder case.

Souji was also struck by feelings of helplessness that pulled frantically at the corners of his soul, because all he could do was wait; for being such a patient man, he did not like to wait. He had seen himself the shadowy glimpses of water nymphs spirits both swimming in and floating above the Samegawa River, playing with the many fish and frogs that made a home there. The ghost lights were no longer restricted to deeply wooded and holy areas, and could be seen just about everywhere in town the moment the sun started to set at the end of each day. The blue fire that burned in the lanterns at the Shrine now burned also at the Amagi Inn, the Ichijo Estate, the Shirogane Estate, and many more of the older homes that dotted the town.

All of this crowded Souji's mind as he sat down to breakfast before school on the last Saturday of the month, April 28th.

He paused, looking up with a frown; had he heard something?

... No, maybe...

There it was again! He turned in his seat, looking behind him towards the back porch, and he blinked in surprise at what, or rather who, he saw there. With a smile, Souji stood and went over to open the door, dropping to one knee as the Hermit fox nimbly stepped inside, two cubs draped across her back and the third dangling from her jaws, wriggling as it mewled.

"Taking me up on my offer?"

The fox let her kits down before nodding once in reply.

"There should be a comfortable space beneath the porch for you for the time being, and I'll let my family know you're here after I'm done with school today, okay? After that, you can join me in my room, or Nanako's room; she'll love you guys."

She let out a small yip of gratitude and reached over to give him a quick lick on his cheek before disappearing outside with her cubs.

Chuckling softly, Souji finished his breakfast, cleaning up his few dishes and he finished getting ready for school, namely making sure he had his schoolwork together before bringing a decently sized bowl filled almost to the brim with water to the back porch, setting it down gently on the grass for his unexpected, but not unwelcome, house guests.

That morning was, sadly, the highlight of Souji's week. Well, the good highlight, anyway. He shared the news of his guests with his fellow Persona users, but at the same time, he heard new rumors of what might be packs of wild dogs prowling around, with a few people hearing low, threatening growling in dark streets late at night, and it was enough that people were beginning to shy away from going to the parks and other, more isolated areas after dark.

Also, on Monday, April 30th, Teddie showed up at the school during the lunch period, surprising Souji and his friends. Yosuke had left his desk to lean against his own, trying almost desperately to expand on Souji's rather limited music selection. It wasn't that Souji had poor taste in music; he just hadn't been exposed to a whole of it while growing up, and so Yosuke took it upon himself to fix that small oversight. Chie and Yukiko had been huddled safely by Yukiko's desk, giggling to each other as Chie recounted a date she had with Kou; Souji couldn't help but playfully needle her about their budding romance. He was happy for both of them, really; it was good to see Chie acting like a fool in love; she was usually much too nervous about boys and relationships. Kou was good for her, and evidently Yukiko agreed.

"SENSEI! Oh, Sensei, it's horrible; absolutely unBEARable!"

Souji leaned back in his seat at the outcry, just as a blond, blue-eyed human-shaped blur passed in front of him where he'd been moments ago, crashing into Yosuke with yells of surprise from the two of them and the clatter of desks toppling.

"Ow, you ass! That hurt! Souji, why'd you dodge?"

"Yeah, Sensei; dodging me like that was rude!"

Souji blinked at them, nonplussed, from his seat, deliberately ignoring the girls' hysterical giggling from in front of him. "Um, it was instinct?"

Yukiko helped Teddie to his feet, straightening the fallen desks as Chie hauled Yosuke up from the floor. "So, what are you doing here, Teddie? What's so horrible?"

"Oh, it's just terrible! I almost didn't make it through this time." Huge crocodile tears welled up instantly in Teddie's dramatic blue eyes.

"Come on, Teddie! Just spit it out! People are starting to stare, bear." Chie said, glancing around the classroom nervously. The last thing they needed was more unnecessary attention and rumors.

"I almost didn't make it from my world through the TV." Teddie spoke quietly, as this was not the conversation for normal people to overhear. "There was a whole lot of resistance, like squeezing through a tunnel that's too small."

"Really? Um, Souji, what do you think; another sign?"

The silver-haired teen nodded to Yukiko's question. "I think so. That world represents what dwells in the hearts and minds of the people in this world, of humans, so maybe loosing access to that world is a side effect of the two worlds merging, since we are no longer alone on our own world, what with the spirits coming through."

"Well, it's a bit of tight squeeze right now, so I should be able to go through as I please, since I'm originally from there, but I don't think you guys will be able to visit anymore." Teddie said, pouting just a little. "I don't know how long the way through will be stable for."

Souji frowned, lips pressed together in a thin line. "I don't want you trapped over there; there's no telling what could happen to that world, and we wouldn't be able to help if the way through to that side was closed off."

"You could always stay with me at the Inn, Teddie, if it starts getting too difficult for you to travel. It might be best." At Yukiko's offer, Teddie flashed her one of his now-infamous grins, complete with sparkles floating through the air..

"Oh, Yuki-chan! You're so sweet!"

The rest of the day passed quickly enough, and after school, Souji walked into the house where he was greeted by Nanako carrying one of the Hermit fox's kits in her arms, cooing over 'Kyu-chan', as she affectionately called the tiny creature even as its mother looked affectionately put upon, and even Dojima wasn't immune to the cuteness, as the usually dour detective gave his approval for the fox and her family to stay with them once Souji properly explained the situation to him over dinner. He also made extra for their house guests.

Souji dutifully went to school, sat through his classes, hung out with his friends during the day, helped Yosuke at Junes a few times that week, and visited the daycare to check on the kids, although there was a notice that the daycare would be closing in a couple weeks time. The rumors and stories of wild dogs and animals at night were growing more and more frequent, and he was concerned about the kids. He shared his concerns with Eri Minami while she was picking up Yuuta, and he asked her to be careful.

Dojima was starting to spend more and more time at the station, coming home later, much like last year, as more calls came in about incidents at night; garbage cans were overturned and mauled, leaving behind dented wreckage; cars were scratched up with gouged claw marks and slashed tires; mailboxes were torn from their posts or hinges and destroyed. Thos were only the few incidents that he mentioned to Souji on the weekend after coming in late. There were more and more cases of petty destruction happening with no apparent cause in sight, but Souji knew it was the supernatural again, monsters distorted from the merging of worlds.

He still had no idea how to fix any of this.

As the month of May began, it seemed that things were finally beginning to escalate, and Souji could see it happening everywhere in Inaba; the others continually brought him updates for their corners of town.

It started out with small events, again, with the power going out at random times at Yasogami High, the lights flickering erratically before plunging the students and staff into darkness for small periods of time before sluggishly starting up again.

All the cash registers at Junes crashed on Friday, May 4th, sending the department store into chaos and frustration, and that night, as Souji walked home, street lights flickered sporadically, all the traffic lights were down, and as he passed by a mailbox, he was startled to see it rust up completely and collapse in a pile of flaking scrap right in front of him.

Saturday afternoon after school had Souji scouring around town for more evidence of the rapid decay and electrical failures, with Kanji phoning him about the Shopping District looking like something out of hell.

Souji was in one of the few parks that were scattered across Inaba, overlooking the remnants of a destroyed private cemetery when his phone rang in his pocket. His caller ID revealed it to be Kanji, so he answered.

"Kanji?"

_"Uh, Senpai? I think this fucked up situation's gettin' worse."_

It was the way the blond had said it, voice low and full of dread, that had Souji worried. "What do you mean? Kanji, where are you? Are you safe?"

_"I'm in the Shopping District. Was gonna go check in on my Ma; tell her to be careful when out and about. This place... it's a wreck, though."_

"Just spit it out, Kanji. Are you okay?"

_"Yeah, I'm fine an' all, but the whole street's torn up, like some giant ass monster just tore shit up in a rampage or somethin'. In some spots, huge chucks of street are just missing. A couple of the power lines have been brought down and torn apart totally shredded, others are just gone, and there are a couple of electrical crews tryin' to fix things up. Kinda looks like a battle ground, or a war zone."_

"Okay, thanks for letting me know. If the power's down, it'll be a few days before it gets fixed, even temporarily. Go home; your mother's probably worried about you, and I want you to call Rise and let her know what's happened, got it? If you need to, pack up your family and go to the Inn; it's one of the most defensible buildings around."

After Kanji's affirmative, Souji ended the call and looked over the cemetery he was standing in. Definitely a place of high spiritual energy, and one of two in Inaba; it, too, looked like a magical war zone. Almost none of the stone monuments were left standing, let alone intact, reduced to rubble for the most part, and all the metal plaques were crumbling, rusted beyond anything he'd seen before.

Sunday, May 6th, he called the group over to his place, since Nanako was at a friend's house for the afternoon, and Dojima was back at the police station again, so they had the place to themselves for at least a few hours.

"So; what do we know?" Souji asked quietly, wanting to get a summary of events as they knew.

"The entire Shopping District's a wreck. Two more power lines were found down this morning, and people are starting to worry." Rise said and Kanji nodded in agreement.

"No one livin' there goes out at night anymore, for nothing. I haven't been attacked or nothing, but I've seen animals or somethin' in the shadows after the sun goes down. I haven't seen them close up for a good look, but I can tell you that whatever's prowlin' is nothing like any ordinary dog." The blond teen shuddered. "You can sometimes hear them growling at night if you're too close to the windows. S'kinda creepy."

Yukiko took a sip of the tea Souji had prepared for their impromptu group meeting. "There's been no damage to Inn itself, but we've had those animal sightings, too, by the staff. They seem to stay away at a distance. There have been shadows flitting around in the air, like almost invisible wind sprites or spirits."

"There are many more ghosts and spirits at the Shirogane Estate." Naoto stated serenely, her customary blue cap pulled down in front of her dark blue eyes. "But that would be because we try and bury our deceased family members somewhere on the grounds whenever possible, to keep them closer to home."

"Okay, that's a little creepy."

Chie smacked Yosuke for being rude. "That's not nice! Anyway, anything made of metal has started to rust, fast. Well, everything not made of iron."

"I've seen the metal decay, but I hadn't noticed about the iron exception." Souji said. "But iron, specifically cold iron, has always been the anathema to the spiritual or magical energies. Anything else of note?"

"Yeah, the decay seems localized in some areas, and completely random in others."

"Normal people are starting to get worried, but so far, no one's panicking. No one seems to be making the connections between everything weird that's been happening lately." Yosuke shrugged helplessly. "It's like everyone's completely oblivious to the fact that this is so not normal."

"I think it's an effect of this town, and being a bit of a magical and spiritual epicenter. People will always believe what they want to believe, and see what they want to see. As this gets worse, their eyes will be opened to the truth, and we will just have to try our best to protect them," Souji said, hands folded under his chin. "Just like we did before."

Teddie nodded enthusiastically, beaming at them. "You're exactly right, Sensei!"

"But Senpai," Rise interjected, a thoughtful frown in place on her lips as she looked at him. "Last year, we were able to fight tangible enemies, with our weapons and Personas, and I don't even have a weapon. We don't have those anymore, and we don't know what we're fighting against, this time."

Souji grinned at her. "Of course we do. We can go back to Deidara's shop for weapons and armor, and as for our Personas, well, they're who we are; we just need a different way to release them here, in this world."

The others nodded in agreement to his words, taking heart in the hope he provided. Just like with Souji, the sheer helplessness they felt was really starting to get to them.

"We cannot give up hope. Not yet." Souji look at each of them in turn, forcing his friends to meet his sharp gaze. "Not now, not ever. We may not know what we're going to be fighting against, but we will prevail, just like we did before."

"We just have to do what we can." Yosuke grinned at them playfully. "We're good at this by now. We can save our world again."

"Also, I'm going to give each of you something that I... ah, almost forgot about." Souji said, a little embarrassed at forgetting. He reached into his back pocket, where he carried a set of thirteen cards, eight of them with familiar images, and he passed them around.

"Hey! Susano-o!" Yosuke blinked in surprise at the image of his Persona on the card and Souji's grin widened.

"The card that each of you holds in your hands features your Persona; your Persona will always be a part of you. These cards are part of the key that will release them here in this world, when the time comes. I received those cards from the Velvet Room, and I want you all to keep them with you at all times. I'll tell you more at another time, when I know more myself."

"Oh, wow, Senpai! You're so cool!" Rise beamed at him, her million-watt smile as dazzling at Teddie's. "But I gotta cut this meeting short, cuz I still have homework to do, and I know you do too, Kanji-kun!" She pointed an accusing finger in the big blonde's direction, pocketing her Kanzeon card, and he groaned.

"Aww, I was hoping you'd forget."

"C'mon, mister; we can do it together, then it'll be done a lot faster!" It was amusing to watch the much smaller girl pulling on Kanji's arm as she wrestled him from the house.

Chie sighed dramatically. "Yeah, I still have my math homework to finish. You're good with math, Yukiko; can you help me with it?"

The two girls stood up, Yukiko nodded to Chie's request. "Of course I can. Your place or the Inn?"

Naoto and Teddie left soon after that, the blond Shadow staying with her in one of the guest bedrooms at her home, as Yosuke offered to remain behind to help Souji clean up.

The silveret brought all the glasses and other dishes into the kitchen, while Yosuke put the living room back into order when the phone rang in the hallway. Souji dumped his armful of dishes into the sink, waving off Yosuke's inquiry about the phone, wanting to answer the call himself.

It was Nanako, politely informing him that she was going to spend the night at her friend's house; that she'd already gotten permission from her father, and she was just calling to let him know where she was so that Souji wouldn't worry about her. About thirty seconds he'd said his good night to his younger cousin, Souji's cell rang with his uncle on the other end of the line, calling from the station.

Dojima basically confirmed Nanako's call, and said that he would late in coming home that night, if at all, and if he wanted, Souji could call one of his friends over to keep him company, making Souji grin on his end. He already had his preferred company over, anyway.

Souji said his goodbyes to Dojima, promising that he'd behave and he closed his cellphone shut, ending the call. Yosuke had finished cleaning the living room and approached him with a questioning frown.

"What's up, partner?"

"We have the place to ourselves for the night. You up for that?" Souji asked him, still grinning.

Yosuke caught on immediately. They hadn't had too much time alone together recently, and he jumped at the opportunity. "Sweet! So, did you have anything in mind?"

Souji set his cell phone down on the table beside the landline phone, reaching out to snatch at Yosuke's white t-shirt along the hemline, effectively tugging the teen closer. "I might have an idea or two."

Their lips met in a playful kiss that immediately sent heat racing down to their groins and Souji moaned into those pliant lips as tongues fought for dominance and Yosuke's hands gripped his hips with bruising strength.

They broke apart gasping for breath, their bodies flush against each other, and Souji grinned at the cute blush that was quickly spreading across Yosuke's face and his darkened, lust filled eyes shone brilliantly.

"My room?"

Yosuke nodded fervently. "Your room. Now."

Souji smirked at the slightly smaller brunette. "Well, aren't you demanding?" He asked as he led the other teen slowly up the stairs.

"I don't hear you complaining!"

"Who said I was?" He reached behind him as he kissed Yosuke again, fumbling to open his bedroom door, stumbling slightly as he tried to navigate inside without releasing Yosuke from his grip.

"Good point."

Conversation faded quickly after that, as the two boys fell back onto the couch, hands roaming as they continued their dominance match with their tongues. Souji moved, positioning Yosuke beneath him, sliding his fingers under the brunet's shirt, teasing at the sensitive skin there.

Yosuke threw his head back into the cushions with a moan, eyes closed with pleasure and Souji swooped down to nibble along his partner's neck, slowly bringing Yosuke's shirt up until he pulled away long enough to tug it off, revealing pale, almost flawless skin. Souji leaned in to trace gentle suckling kisses along each faint scar on Yosuke's torso, remnants of previous battles.

Yosuke was quick to reciprocate, tugging at Souji's long-sleeved shirt and tossing it aside once it was off. His eyes raked over his Leader's half naked form with a hunger he couldn't hide, and he trailed his tongue down the smooth pale skin of Souji's stomach, enjoying the shudders that rippled the length of Souji's form from his actions.

The silveret attacked Yosuke's neck again, planting hot kisses along his collarbone while he played with the belt keeping the brunet's jeans in place, although if he had his way tonight, well... he grinned as his imagination went wild.

Yosuke bucked beneath him, sending different body parts rubbing against each other, and both teens groaned lustfully. Souji hauled Yosuke to his feet and led him to the futon in the corner, removing the brunet's belt, and unbuttoning the top button as he did so.

Their gazes locked together, clouded with lust, but Souji managed, with a tilt of his head and a sweet smile, to silently ask the question he couldn't seem to ask aloud. There was no doubt that there was a lot of physical chemistry between them, and the events from the previous already had them in sync with each others' minds, and while it hadn't been that long since they first started dating, Souji was more than willing (he craved the chase) to pursue the physical intimacy that waited, seeing the probability of their emotional intimacy following it.

Yosuke knew what Souji was asking him with his emotion-darkened slate eyes, and searching deep in his soul, he found the answer. He nodded with a smile of his own, with no trace of hesitation or worry or fear in his expression as he regarded his Partner above him.

With Yosuke's response, Souji made quick work of their remaining clothes and lowered Yosuke down onto the futon, briefly fishing around in the bottom drawer of his dresser for the condoms Dojima had given him a few months ago. That had been a rather embarrassing... discussion... for the both of them, but that was a story for another day.

"Are you sure? One hundred percent? Are you with me?" He asked, for the last time, settling himself between Yosuke's legs and drawing his boyfriend's knees back for easier access. He wanted there to be no regrets.

Yosuke nodded again, leaning forward to kiss him gently. "Yes, always. One hundred percent."

Souji returned the kiss passionately, slipping the condom on with one hand as the other began to prepare his lover, first with one finger, then two and then three, gentle and teasing, calming the quivering muscles of the lithe body beneath him, distracting him from the unusual sensations with hot kisses everywhere he could manage. Yosuke could only hold onto him, breathless, hands gripping his shoulders white knuckled as Souji prepped him with massage oil until he was finally, fully relaxed and wanting more.

Once Yosuke was ready, Souji lined himself up carefully and slid slowly into that blessed heat, making him gasp for breath as he carefully, ever so slowly, buried himself inside of Yosuke. The brunet's arms were now wrapped around his back, blunted nails scrapping slightly against the skin of his neck, holding him close as their foreheads touched and their breath mingled shakily. He took only moments to get used to the new sensations of his lover before he started moving, sinfully slow at first, rocking his hips back and forth and gaining a rhythm that had Yosuke trying to meet his every thrust.

Souji was reduced to grunts and lust-filled groans as he listened to Yosuke's growing cries of pleasure, unable to form a cohesive thought beyond this very moment. He moved faster, burying his face into Yosuke's neck, biting down as his partner screamed, sweat rolling down his face.

Yosuke could hardly breathe from all the sensations he felt (it felt so Good!), and the passion he was experiencing. This was nothing like he'd felt before, more than he could've imagined, and he felt hypersensitive to every part of Souji that he could touch and feel. He ran his fingers down the silveret's sides, finding purchase on his hips and pulling the other teen deeper into him with each thrust.

Then his ability to breathe was gone and forgotten as a hand that was not his own reached between their entwined bodies to close around his neglected cock, a firm grip pumping him in time with each slick thrust, leaving Yosuke to just revel in it. He hooked his feet together behind Souji's waist, drawing him in even deeper and he saw stars as something inside him was struck, and breathing became a luxury easily forgotten.

Souji groaned, biting down again on Yosuke's neck in the same spot as the willing body beneath his own tightened around him, wearing down on his already failing self-control. He wasn't going to last much longer at this rate, but he knew that Yosuke was close, too, quickly reaching his peak.

The combination was too much for Yosuke, with Souji deep inside him, striking that delicious spot with each thrust, his hand pumping away erratically, and the sting of his teeth bruising his flesh and with a violent shudder and scream, he exploded, fireworks flashing behind his screwed shut eyes as he drowned in the aftershock, and it was only an afterthought in the back of his mind that Souji came just seconds after him, brought to a finish by Yosuke's body tightening around him in spasms.

Souji collapsed on top of him, barely managing to pull out in time. He lay there on top of Yosuke panting, a silly grin creeping across his normally stoic face, and a glance told him that the brunette had a similar look. Slowly, he pushed himself off of his lover and rested beside him, forehead planted on his shoulder.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"We have school tomorrow, don't we?"

"Yup."

"Damn. I don't wanna move."

"So don't. I'll set the alarm a little early so that we can stop by your place in the morning." Souji raised his gray eyes to meet Yosuke's brown orbs with a smug grin. "Besides, I really don't think you should move just yet."

"I would punch you right now if I could." Yosuke yawned widely, squirming against Souji. "We should probably clean up first, though."

"Yeah, I'll get it. You probably shouldn't move too much yet." It was still with great effort that Souji pulled himself away from Yosuke, got up and headed for the bathroom, nudging their collective discarded clothes off to the side as he went.

He came back a few minutes later with a couple of damp washcloths, dropping one down on Yosuke as he cleaned himself off. Grimacing at the smell of the room, he opened the window wide, not needing Dojima to ever come in and smell the fresh scent of sex. Even though his uncle wasn't home, the thought sent chills down Souji's spine. Not something he ever wanted to deal with.

He pulled on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, grabbing the same for Yosuke before making his way back to his futon where his now clean boyfriend was almost already passed out.

Smiling, he nudged the brunet awake, holding out the clothes in one hand.

"What? I was sleeping..." Yosuke whined, and Souji chuckled at his antics.

"Come on, just put these on and we can get some sleep."

"Fine. Fine, fine."

Five minutes later had Souji turning out the lights and crawling into the futon beside Yosuke, content as his partner turned into his body, nestling languidly into the crook of his neck, and slipping one leg between his knees as he curled an arm around Souji's waist.

"Never figured you for a snuggler."

"And if anyone finds out, I will hurt you. Seriously hurt you. Now hush; sleeping now."

"Goodnight, Yosuke."

* * *

Souji blinked in surprise as he glanced around, taking in the now familiar cerulean-hued train car of the Velvet Room before focusing his attention on Igor and Margaret, who were sitting in their usual positions across from him on the other side of the car.

"Welcome back." Igor said, with little of his usual humor in his voice and lacking his creepy smile. "I have brought you here tonight while you sleep to bring to your awareness the significance of the moon and her phases."

"The moon?" Souji frowned, disturbed by Igor's abruptness; the strange man always preferred riddles and circular phrasing; the lack of such was unnerving. "Why?"

"The lunar phases have, in the past, played a large and significant role in the events witnessed by the previous Wild Card guest. The moon is also a prominent feature in mythology and, I suspect, an important aspect of the supernatural phenomena in your world." Margaret explained quietly, her brow furrowed in concern, and Souji's frown deepened, getting a sense of urgency and distress.

"Tonight is the full moon, the most powerful of all the lunar phases, followed closely by the new moon. Energies are high this night, causing a disturbance in the world. You must be cautious around these times, now and in the upcoming months."

"What's happening? Can you tell me anything?"

"I cannot see what is occurring at this moment, only that caution must be taken. I suspect that you'll find out on your own soon enough." Igor shook his head sadly. "Only a resolution to these troubled times will end the disturbances, and that is all I can tell you for now."

Then the Velvet Room was gone and Souji drifted down into a deep sleep that, fortunately, had no dreams in which to plague him, feeding from his worries brought on by this unexpected news.

* * *

It was as Souji and Yosuke were walking together to school on Monday morning that they first heard the whispers. A feeling of great unease had made itself felt since the moment Souji had woken up that morning, although he had tried to hide from Yosuke until he could be sure of whatever disaster the full moon had brought about. He didn't think he kept his unease from Yosuke all too well, though the other teen had yet to comment on it.

The rumors spread like wildfire of a weird statue found on the edge of the Samegawa River, right by the turn off to Yasogami High, and as the two Persona users came closer to the scene, the whispers grew in both volume and dread.

Souji glanced at Yosuke beside to gauge his reaction the speculations and rumors sprouting around them, but the brunette only shrugged, just as clueless as he was.

"I wonder what has everyone's panties in a bunch."

"Not too sure. I don't think it's good, though."

"Let's check it out."

Souji's sense of uneasiness grew the closer they came to the edge of the Samegawa, and once he saw the statue, he knew what had happened under the light of the full moon the night before.

Life sized and fully detailed, the statue was of a man in a business suit not familiar to Souji, but that didn't stop him from seeing every detail of the unfortunate man's prettification. Souji could see the look of terror etched into the stone face as though he felt the emotion himself, and he realized that this stranger's last moments had been filled with a fear that had him trying to run from it, if he read the positioning of the fossilized limbs correctly.

"Dude, what does this mean?" Yosuke whispered from beside him, staring at the grotesque statue with a kind of awe and disbelief.

Souji couldn't tear his eyes away from the stone reminder of the fate that could await all of them, if he couldn't figure out a way to stop it all from happening.

"It means the stakes are higher. It means that time's running out."


	6. Transformative Power and New Players

Since coming across the grisly statue on the Samegawa, things in Inaba were really starting to get worse. Souji had heard, through rampant rumors that during the night of that full moon, any TV that had been on at around midnight had all of a sudden and out of nowhere, turned a sickly red, casting a decidedly creepy crimson glow from the screen and emitting an ugly and harsh white noise that grated on the nerves of all who had heard it, reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard.

Souji confirmed this on May 20th, the night of the new moon, when the normally black disk of the new moon he knew was hanging out there in the pitch black sky was instead lit up in the same crimson glow of his TV.

What he wasn't expecting, though, was the ghastly sight of thick, fresh blood oozing from the TV screen, dripping down onto his floor.

Another statue was found the next morning; the final moments of the woman it represented continually reminding Souji of the peril that waited for them all.

It didn't help the situation or to ease Souji's misgivings that Dojima had confirmed that two new Missing Persons reports had been filed, the descriptions matching perfectly the statues currently on display in the town.

Vandalism was common now, as more and more cars were wrecked with their windows smashed in and tires slashed; fences were torn down; and any property not bolted down was destroyed. The wild dogs that rampaged during the evening hours were destroying the abandoned buildings of the Shopping District, one by one, leaving a trail of broken glass and crumbling rubble in their wake, and Souji had seen the beasts a few times already.

They were not normal dogs, by any means. He preferred to think of them as some kind of hellhound, actually, resembling something closer out of a demonology compendium instead. The dogs were far larger in size than wolves, broad in the shoulder and long with thick, sinewy muscle, and dark bristly hair covering their powerful bodies. Glowing crimson eyes shone menacingly in the darkness of the streets, matched perfectly by the coronet of blue sparks and embers that formed a flaming crown upon each beast's head.

The Shopping District kept getting hit the most, with the vandalism of the buildings, the consistently torn up asphalt making it impossible for any car or bike to travel through the street, and every single power pole had now been torn down by unseen forces and shredded into tiny pieces, sending the neighborhood into frantic chaos as the people who lived there tried to adapt to living without power. Junes had sold out of portable battery-operated generators within a week. Kanji and Rise had already packed up their families to the relative safety of the Amagi Inn, but were staying in their homes themselves, to keep an eye on the worsening situation.

After the third statue was found, Souji made sure none of his fellow Persona Users walked around unarmed.

After the new moon the night of June 19th, a few days after the fourth and fifth human statues were found, Souji was walking home after school, having made sure the culture club girls, Ayane and Yumi, as well as Ai made it home safely before turning in the direction of home as the sun hung low in the sky, but it was not yet even twilight when he first heard the ominous and threatening snarling of the hellhounds from behind him.

He was crossing through a park off of the Samegawa, and he spun around sharply at the sound, coming face to fearsome face with a pack of the beasts coming out from within the shadowy depths of the trees, and his hand slowly reached down and into his pocket, where his Izanagi Tarot card was kept.

He still didn't know how to use it; didn't know how to release the power within the card.

It surprised him that the beasts were coming out in daylight, since all reports of them had them as nocturnal creatures, and he didn't know if he could fight them off alone, in fact, Souji greatly doubted his ability to do so. His other hand crept ever so slowly up the unobtrusive sword case he'd only recently gotten from Deidara's weapons shop, currently slung over his shoulder and concealing his most powerful weapon, the Blade of Totsuka within it.

Damnit! He really didn't have time for this now! Cursing under his breath, Souji decided to run, pivoting on his heel, knowing that he would be sorely pressed to win in a battle against this pack as he was; if he could figure out how to release Izanagi, then he would be alright on his own.

He bolted, sprinting towards the closest and more populated street, hearing behind him the rally cry of the hellhounds as they took off after him. Dusk had set in fully, casting the passing scenery with dark looming shadows, but he paid no head, keeping his hand on his sword case, ready to draw his weapon if he needed to.

Just as he felt the beasts catch up to him, felt their hot rancid breath panting as they nipped at his heels, Souji turned a corner and slowed as he nearly collided with a mailbox a few blocks shy of the Shopping District. As he righted himself, breaking into a brisk jog, he heard the hellhounds backing off in defeat, disappearing once again into the mounting obscurity of the darkening night.

He didn't slow to a walk, preferring to keep the pace of his jog the rest of the way towards the safety of home as he fumbled in his pocket for his cell. When Yosuke picked up on the other end, Souji was quickly approaching the house, grateful for the sight of Dojima's car in the small driveway.

_"Dude, are you okay? You sound out of breath."_ He could hear Yosuke's concern over the phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a close call. I had a thought; are you ready to tell the others? About us, I mean?"

There was silence on Yosuke's end for a few moments as Souji unlocked the front door and let himself inside, responding absently to Nanako's welcome home greeting, ascending the stairs for his room.

_"Um, sure, if you are. Are you seriously okay?"_

Souji nodded, even as he realized that his boyfriend wasn't there to see it. "I am now. I just had a close call with those hellhounds. They're getting bolder, and I suddenly felt that we shouldn't have to hide our relationship; I want to be able to hand you hand in public, or kiss you when I want to." He closed the door of his room behind him, dropping his sword case against the wall beside the door.

_"Okay, sure. When do you want to?"_ He was positive that Yosuke was blushing fiercely on the other end of the line.

"Does tomorrow sound good? We can all meet after school, on the roof or at Aiya's."

_"Then it's settled. Have yourself a good night okay, Partner? I'll see you tomorrow."_

Souji bid Yosuke good night and got dressed for the night. After his run from the hellhounds, he wasn't even hungry, just fricken tired, and considering what he'd just set himself up for tomorrow, well, he'd need the extra rest. He figured it'd go just fine, but there was still a tiny niggling bit of doubt in his mind, no matter how much he reassured himself.

At school the next morning, Souji managed to track down Ai, since she already knew about him and Yosuke, during the lunch hour. She was hanging out with both Yumi and Ayane, and Souji was pleased that the three girls had become fast friends. They'd be good for each other.

"Hey, how are my favorite girls?" He said, smiling as the three Arcana members greeted him with cheerful smiles. He sat down between Ayane and Ai, winking at the shopaholic. She caught on immediately, how he had no idea, and she grinned madly.

"Hi Souji!" Yumi grinned at him. "What's up?"

"Well, I've got a little something to say, it's kind of important to me, and I'd love to share it with you girls." Souji looked at the three girls a little nervously, but Ai just poked him in the ribs with a pointy finger.

"Oh, just spill, already!"

Souji cast the brunette beside him a look that had her giggling. "Would you hush? I would get to it if it weren't for the interruptions. Anyway, I've realised that I may not be as exclusive to one gender when it comes to my feelings for someone." A quick inspection told him that none of the girls were upset by his admission. "So I guess that I'm saying I'm bisexual, and that I'm dating someone."

"And he's dating Yosuke Hanamura! Isn't it great? They are so adorable together!"

Before he actually admonish Ai for spilling his secret before he could, Souji's hearing was rattled at the sudden squeals from Yumi, her grin widening with glee as she clapped her hands together, and Ayane shyly thanked him for telling them.

She was such a sweetheart, really.

"Okay, ladies! Could you keep it down a little, though? I haven't told the others yet."

"Fine, we'll keep quiet, right girls?" Yumi asked, getting a nod from both Ai and Ayane before she turned her full attention back to Souji, startling him with the ferocious glint sparkling in her pretty eyes. "So... how far have you gotten with Yosuke?"

Souji couldn't stop the rush of blood flooding his face as he sputtered, sending the girls into further hysterics, and he sighed, shaking his head.

"Like I'd tell you bunch of shameless gossips! Anyway, I gotta go, so I'll see you girls later. And Ai, don't tease Yosuke too much, okay? And be careful, all of you! I don't want anything to happen to you; you three are some of my favorite girls, after all!" With that, Souji stood, submitted affectionately to the hugs that each of them insisted on and left in search of Yosuke for the rest of the lunch hour.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly as their different teachers lazily went through their respective subjects (no one was really wanting to be at the school), and right after the last class of the day, Souji sent Yosuke to grab Rise, Naoto and Kanji before they could leave, and asked Chie and Yukiko to meet them on the roof, which was sure to be deserted, and to call Teddie to come, too.

Ignoring their confused looks as they agreed and left, Souji hurried into the hall and into the classroom beside his own and easily spied Kou and Daisuke, and the soccer player was actually talking to Ai Ebihara, and Kou was encouraging the conversation. He smiled at that, knowing the girl's attraction to the big lug.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt; but could you guys come up to the roof with me? I've got something I want to share with you." He grinned when they agreed, standing from their seats. "Sorry, Ai, but I gotta borrow them."

"Oh, is this about-!" She giggled when he nodded engulfing him in a hug. "Sure, go ahead, I'll just find the girls! Good luck, Souji! See you later, Daisuke!" The she was gone out the door, leaving the two athletes staring after her in confusion and a little shock.

"Uh... what was that about, dude?"

"She already knows what I want to talk to you guys about. Come on, the others are probably waiting for us now."

The scene on the roof would have been funny to Souji had he not been nervous about why he had brought most of his friends to the seclusion up here. Yosuke was surrounded by the others, with Chie and Rise demanding to know what was going on, on both side of the teen, as he adamantly stayed quiet, shaking his head in blatant refusal, his arms crossed in defiance. Kanji was leaning against the large vent, grinning at Yosuke's plight, while Yukiko settled for sighing dramatically at her friends' antics and Naoto was struggling to hide her grin.

In fact, Naoto was the first to notice him and she brought him to the others' attention, saving Yosuke from even more harassment.

"Senpai, why are we here?" She asked, noting the addition of the two athletes behind him, so it couldn't be something terrible or related to the dangers they faced against the supernatural.

Souji settled himself beside Yosuke, taking a deep breath in preparation. "Well, to be honest, I have something to tell you all. All of you are my friends, my closest friends, and I reached the point where I don't want to hide anything from you."

"Sensei?" Teddie asked, prompting him to continue.

He decided to just spit it out. "To put it bluntly, I've figured out that I'm gay, or at least bisexual. I want to know if you don't like or approve, so I can stop hiding my relationship."

He was met with a stunned silence for a moment, and he spared a minute glance at Yosuke, finding the teen beside was tense, mouth pressed in a thin line as he stared at the group of people around them, waiting for their friends' responses.

"Good on you, Senpai!" Kanji stated boldly, a wide grin plastered across his face, jolting the others from their stupor. "S'not like you to hide from us, and you've always been there for us, so I'm with you on this!"

Souji was warmed by the blond's open support, a smile tilting his lips. "Thank you, Kanji. That means a lot."

"Who are you seeing?" Yukiko demanded, thrown for a loop, and Souji repressed a grimace, recalling her affections for him. "Its fine, there's nothing wrong with you being that way, but I was hoping we could, I don't know, go from where we last left off."

"I'm sorry, Yukiko. That ship has sailed its course. But, to answer to your question..." He shrugged, giving Yosuke his chance.

"It's me." Incredulous stares turned to the brunet beside him, who turned a lovely shade of red under the scrutiny. Souji reached over and grabbed Yosuke's hand in his, his thumb caressing the smooth skin. "We've been dating since April. More or less, since right after he came back."

"So long as you're happy, Kou and I don't care who you're seeing, guys or otherwise. You deserve to be happy, man." Daisuke grinned at them and Kou elbowed him in the ribs playfully before sitting next to Chie.

"He's speaking for me again, but yeah, he's right!"

"I had already come to the conclusion, actually." Naoto smiled warmly at them. "It wasn't that hard to hard to figure out if one was truly observant and willing to see."

"What does 'gay' mean? I haven't heard of that, yet. What's 'bisexual'? Does this you get to 'score' with Yosuke?" Souji had to refrained himself from slapping his forehead in exasperation to Teddie's questions, grinning when Yosuke followed no such restraints.

"Oh my God, bear. Shut up already!"

"I don't even know how to answer that and keep a straight face, Teddy. Rise; could you explain it to him later?"

She giggled at them and nodded fervently. "Of course, Senpai! Oh, you and Yosuke-Senpai are soo cute together! Just adorable! You two suit each other!" She squealed much like Yumi had at lunch, and Souji wondered if he should be worried about his hearing, with all the ringing it was doing from the higher frequencies.

"How'd it happen? I want details, mister!" Chie pointed a finger at him, a familiar determined look about her and Souji nearly groaned. "When'd you find out you like guys? When'd you tell Yosuke, and when was your first kiss?!"

"Chie, dear, you're making them uncomfortable." Kou grinned at his girlfriend, the two having hooked up about a few weeks previous. "Should I be worried about you going all 'fangirl' on them?"

She blushed herself, smacking Kou on the arm. "Uh, wha- hey! I'm being nice! I'm just curious, is all." She huffed indignantly and Yukiko giggled, brought out of her sulk.

Souji grinned at his friends, happy to have told them and feeling relieved, and he adjusted his grip on Yosuke's hand, instead twining their fingers together. "I'm happy you're all okay with this. We were kinda worried, a little."

"Yeah; especially with how I acted like such an ass last year." Yosuke looked over to Kanji. "I'm still sorry for that, Kanji."

"S'alright, Senpai. I just get to hold that over your head for a little while, and then I'll be good." The taller teen grinned, looming over them and Souji laughed.

"Hey, and in a town this weird," Kou said, arm wrapped around Chie's shoulders. "We have to be pretty accepting, so this is nothing big, and you're our friends."

"Thanks, guys."

* * *

Souji was hanging out with Yosuke on Sunday, July 1st; the day itself a lazy Sunday of clear weather and completely uneventful, curled up together on his couch watching movies while reclined on extra pillows and blankets when his cell phone rang. Dislodging himself from his lover, which proved to be a somewhat monumental task on its own, Souji answered the call, blinking as he registered his uncle speaking on the other end.

_"Hey, I'm going to be late tonight, again. Could you take care of dinner and put Nanako to bed when it's time?"_ Dojima asked, and he sounded dead tired to Souji's ears, his deep voice rougher than usual. Souji knew the constant phone calls about the rising cases of petty vandalism and destroyed property was starting to wear thin on his uncle.

So maybe he felt a little guilty, since he knew what was causing the rising crime in Inaba, but he didn't how to bring the subject up; especially with Dojima's disbelief about the TV world. Souji knew he would have to have irrevocable proof, or a first-hand witness account from Dojima himself before his uncle would believe him.

Still made Souji feel bad about the deception, though.

"Sure thing, dinner's taken of already. There are even some leftovers in the fridge if you want them. Just... please be careful coming home tonight, okay? I almost got attacked again last week, so those creatures are hanging around, I think."

_"Yeah... I will, Souji. Tell Nanako I'll be home tomorrow and on time for me, okay?"_

"I can do that. Is it okay if Yosuke sticks around?"

He knew then, in that very instant that he wasn't fooling his uncle; that his uncle knew about him and Yosuke, simply from the distinct weighted pause before his uncle spoke. _"Just make sure to lock your door after Nanako's in bed, and no funny stuff before then, got it? I don't want to have to answer any awkward questions."_

"Okay, Uncle, I got it. See you tomorrow."

Yosuke was staring at him with something akin to horror as Souji shut his phone, setting it down on the table. "He so knows, doesn't he?"

"Yep, we're totally busted. It's about time for Nanako's bedtime, so I'll just be a few minutes. Could you go downstairs and check to see if our furry friends outside need anything, please?"

The rest of the evening passed smoothly as the two boys got Nanako ready for bed, and prepared for the next day for themselves, while discussing plans to prepare for the next full moon on the 3rd of July, still two days away. Once everything had been taken care of inside the house, and Nanako was fast asleep, the two teenagers retreated for the relative sanctity of Souji's bedroom, where they tumbled into bed together.

Sleep wouldn't come to them for a few hours yet.

* * *

The next two days were filled with a sense of stark anticipation and disconcerting dread that sent chills down Souji's spine and had him on a constant high alert, making him edgy and nervous. Something big was going to happen soon, and he had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to happen tonight, during the full moon. He couldn't seem to shake the feeling that whatever was undoubtedly going to happen tonight would change the course of how he was going to deal with his mission to once again save the world.

And it scared the crap out of him.

After the last bell rang, Souji sought out each and every one of his friends, from Naoki before the underclassman could leave, to Ayane and Yumi as the two girls were headed for their respective clubs, to Kou and Daisuke out by the soccer field, and told them all to go home. He had a feeling, he said to each of them, that something bad was going to happen, and he didn't want any of them to get hurt. Shaken, they all did as he asked and hurried home under his watchful gaze.

He found Ai with Chie and Yukiko, asking his fellow Persona users about some of the schoolwork assigned today, and he sent them home as well, telling them he'd explain tomorrow if they still had questions.

He called Eri Minami and told her to stay inside after she'd picked up Yuuta from the daycare, telling her he had a bad feeling about tonight, and that he wanted her and Yuuta safe. She was startled and a little worried, but she promised to be quick and would be indoors long before the sun set.

He called Shu Nakajima too, also warning the boy to stay inside, no matter what happened that night. Luckily, he didn't have to worry about Hisano, since he knew the old woman would be safe in her home, and Sayoko was still out of the country.

He found the rest of his friends, Naoto, Kanji, Teddie, Rise and Yosuke in the front of the school, getting their things from their shoe lockers. He sent them home, too, addressing his underclassmen and the Shadow. He told them about his uneasiness and sense of dread, and they agreed to go home right away.

He turned to Yosuke, the only one of his friends remaining at the school. "Could you come with me? I have the feeling that whatever happens tonight will scare Nanako, so I could use the help."

Yosuke nodded grimly, reflecting his mood as he grabbed his bag. "Yeah, sure thing, Partner. I'll just call my folks when we get there."

"Thanks."

They passed by Aiya's restaurant on the way and picked up some take-out for dinner, and they both noticed more and more of the hellhounds hanging out in the alleys of the Shopping District, waiting, watching them and growling menacingly as they passed, picking up the pace as they went.

Yosuke kept his kunai holstered at his belt, his hands twitching every so often, and Souji continued to keep one hand on the case of his Sword of Totsuka, just in case, and he made a mental note to visit Deidara's shop soon for some armor, specifically the God's Garment or the Coat of Thoroughness. He also wondered briefly, absently, why Deidara gave his special creations such... interesting names.

Now wasn't the time for such inane thoughts, so he dismissed it altogether.

To Souji's immense relief, Nanako was already home when he and Yosuke arrived at the house, happily playing with the fox kits in the living room, with the Hermit fox watching them from her chosen spot curled up beside the TV.

"Yay! Big Bro's home! And you brought dinner!" Souji grinned as his younger cousin raced over, still carrying one of the kits in her arms.

"What, no 'hello' for me, Nanako-chan?" Yosuke grinned down at the girl, setting the food down on the cluttered kitchen table.

While Yosuke kept Nanako occupied, Souji took the time to try and call Dojima at the station, to see whether or not his uncle would be making it home tonight. So long as his uncle kept himself safe, Souji could deal with keeping Nanako occupied and safe.

_"Dojima speaking."_ From his terse tone, Souji started to think that maybe he'd called at a bad time, but this was a necessary phone call.

"It's Souji, uncle. I just wanted to know if you were going to be home tonight, but I take it that you're not."

_"Sorry, Souji, it's... it's just been a long day, with weirder stuff happening today than usual, these days. I might be late. You'd think that most people would realize there's very little the police can do about this freaky stuff."_

"That's okay, I understand. If you're going to be too late, close to or after midnight, then it might be best to just stay where you are."

_"What are you talking about, Souji?"_

"I just have a very bad feeling, that's all. Be careful."

_"Sure thing, Souji. I might see you later, and take care of Nanako for me."_

"Of course."

Souji ended the call and looking at Yosuke, he shook his head in a negative. The brunet understood his meaning and nodded before focusing back on Nanako as he served dinner. His boyfriend was really fond of his cousin, and that made him smile, because he loved the little girl with all his heart, and he'd do anything to keep her happy.

He walked over to where his fox friend was lying, pulling one of her kits into his lap as he sat down beside her. He idly scratched her head, watching as she preened under the attention.

"You guys should stay inside tonight. I think it'll be safer for you."

The fox nodded in understanding before nudging Souji over to the table where Nanako and Yosuke had dinner set up, chatting away animatedly and without any further a due, the three of them started eating, feeding the fox kits under the table.

* * *

Ryotaro Dojima sighed heavily as he drove his car through the deserted streets of Inaba from the police station towards home, driving much slower than usual due to the quantity of hellhounds that were roaming about.

He must have been crazy to leave the station.

Especially after his nephew's warning over the phone.

Souji Seta was not one to have random bouts of adolescent paranoia; in fact, he was more level-headed and serious than almost all the adults at least twice his age; Dojima worked with several of the idiots!

So, why, he was asking himself, had he not paid attention to the late hour and listened to his incredibly smart and perceptive nephew when he said to stay at the police station?

"Too late, now." He muttered to himself with a grim frown, trying to stay focused as several of the beasts charged a little close to his car, darting around the vehicle and reaching out to scratch at the metal and he cringed at the sound of their claws.

He pushed down on the gas, speeding past this particular pack of creatures, and he heaved a small sigh of relief as they pulled away from the car.

Now if only he could make it home.

Tension slowly eased from the middle of his spine as he approached his street, now just a couple of blocks away and all Dojima could look forward to was just collapsing in bed. He wasn't even sure at this point if he wanted to bother with changing his clothes once he got in. Thank god he had tomorrow free, although the likelihood that he'd called in was very high; nonetheless, he desperately needed and wanted his day off!

The amount of fucks he had to give was dropping dramatically by the second.

Dojima eased off the gas just a fraction as he looked around the deserted street. Something was wrong, something was happening.

Then he heard it, a faint humming sound from outside, as if from something electrical, before all the lights went out, dousing the night in pitch darkness, and effectively killing his car.

_Shit!_ The car spun out and collided with a metal fence railing, jolting him forward in his seat only to be stopped abruptly by his seatbelt, still holding him secure, and bringing back horrible flashbacks from last year, when Nanako had been kidnapped and the subsequent car chase and crash.

Head pounding from where he'd slammed it into the steering wheel, Dojima was able to bring himself back to reality, and he told himself that his daughter, his precious Nanako was safe at home, safe with Souji, and once his head was reasonably clear (although he couldn't feel the impending migraine), and something itched terribly on his back, he started rummaging around his now-cluttered space and grasped his gun holster, the police-issued standard weapon still secured firmly.

But how could a power outage short-circuit his car? If that's even what happened! The car battery is an independent system, so it shouldn't have happened, and his car shouldn't be dead.

"Crap." This was JUST what he needed!

He scrambled around a bit more and found a flashlight that should have worked, but, just like his car battery, the bloody, stupid blasted thing was dead.

Dojima peered out through the cracked windshield and into the darkness, and was relieved to recognize his surroundings; he was only two blocks from the safety of home.

Taking a look through the back windshield, the detective could already see the growing flickering blue lights of a pack of hellhounds coming closer. They were still some distance away, from what he could guess, so maybe he could get home before they caught him.

He decided to take the chance, and forced open the car door, broken glass clattering noisily to the pavement as he got out and started walking away and quickly.

Luckily, he was just able to see with the light of the full moon above him, but he couldn't help feeling uneasy about it, as well.

Every stone statue had been found directly after the full and new moons. That wasn't a coincidence.

An eerie howl ringing through the empty night quickened his pace and he turned the corner onto his street, catching sight of his house, and flickering candlelight in one of the windows.

But at the end of the street past his home were at least three of those beasts, halting his footsteps.

They looked like they were waiting for him, and Dojima unclipped his gun from its holster.

What little light there was changed suddenly, startling Dojima and jerking his sharp gaze upwards, towards the moon, hanging full in the sky. His breath caught in his throat and his heart dropped to his stomach at what he saw.

Red. The moon was red. Casting a sickly, bloody tinge across the world, the moon above, full in its gruesome, crimson splendor, was red, just like oozing blood and Dojima felt fear lurch its way into his throat as he stood there beside the wreckage of his car, stunned.

Ominous growls from behind him tore his gaze from the ghastly sight above as he whirled about, drawing his gun. Four more hellhounds were no less than a hundred feet from him, snarling as thick drool dribbled down onto the pavement, the rest of the pack quickly gaining on him.

They were hunters, and he was now the hunted.

Crap! He bolted, sprinting for the relative safety of home, and he heard all the creatures charging after him, the three in front racing to cut him off before he could reach safety.

He raised his gun in front of him, and taking aim while he ran, Dojima fired a shot, elated for a moment when he heard one of the hellhounds fall back with a pain-laced yip.

The front door of his house flew open, revealing his nephew Souji, holding a goddamn katana of all things, his boyfriend Yosuke, and Nanako, standing in the open doorway, shocked to see him there.

Nanako tried running out to meet him halfway, but Dojima was glad when the Hanamura boy pulled her back and Souji stepped out in front of them, raising his sword as he pulled something from his pocket.

By now, Dojima had made it up the driveway, mere feet away from the open doorway, when his legs collapsed from under as razor sharp teeth sliced into his left leg, forcing a pained scream from his throat.

He was vaguely aware of Nanako screaming, and Souji shouting something, but he hit the pavement then, his gun gone from his hand.

Powerful jaws started pulling him backwards, and he was just able to turn himself around enough to see a couple of the beasts snapping at each other if one got too close, and he kicked out with his free uninjured leg, knocking the hellhound loose.

Later, he realized that's what saved his life.

* * *

Souji and Yosuke had been awake, waiting for midnight in anticipation of the moon's transformation, and Souji, for his part, was hoping that his uncle had stayed at the station, but he wasn't counting on it either. Nanako had already been tucked safely in bed, and hopefully she'd stay there.

The power had gone out only a few minutes before, and between the two of them, they were able to get enough candles lit to have a somewhat comforting glow in the living room, even if the fire lighting the candles was blue.

Then the gunshot was heard, deafeningly loud and terrifyingly close by, that had Nanako awake and rushing downstairs from her sleep and all of them running to the front door to see what was happening.

Souji wasn't surprised to see his uncle racing towards them with a pack of hellhounds on his tail, gaining rapidly.

He knew his uncle wouldn't make it in time.

As Nanako tried to rush past him, Yosuke pulled the little girl back, telling her it wasn't safe and that she shouldn't be there, and Souji stepped in front of them, raising his sword defensively in front of his family and removing his Izanagi Tarot card from his pocket, wanting to protect them at all costs.

Then Dojima was down, brought down by the hellhounds, and Souji leapt forward, scooping up the gun his uncle always carried as it skittered into his path. He wasn't even sure why he grabbed the gun; Souji didn't know how to use it.

Time froze.

His vision flickered out, and he saw a boy in front of him, around his age, standing on the roof of a building that was slick with puddles of blood, tinged black by the light of a sickly green moon.

The boy, in a school uniform he thought he recognized, was skinny and kind of short with messy blue hair, and Souji felt a certain... kinship to this boy he had never met.

A voice in the back of his mind whispered to Souji. _"The Fool, a Wild Card."_

The boy, a Wild Card, like himself faced off against a giant monster with far too many arms wielding too many swords, calmly placed a gun to the side of his head, a slightly glazed look to his eyes as his mouth quirked into a manic smirk.

"Per...so...na."

He pulled the trigger and shards of light, tinkling like glass, exploded outward to swirl up behind him and coalesce into a figure, but the vision faded and time started up again.

Knowing now what he had to do, Souji held his Tarot card face out in front of him, placing the tip of the gun to the back of his hand, ignoring the shocked and frightened look on his uncle's face and ignoring the shouts from Yosuke, demanding to know what the hell he thought he was doing.

"I am thou... Thou art I... From the sea of my soul, I call upon thy name and release my power... Izanagi!"

He pulled the trigger of the gun, shooting the back of his hand, ignoring the fiery pain that erupted, and watched as his blood began to crystallize and shatter and circle back to him, twisting around his body until he could see nothing but crimson, glittering blood.

Oh, he felt the changes happening to his body, as his body lengthened in form, and his vision was slightly obstructed by a visor he recognized, and a familiar coat fluttered in a non-existent wind, a great polearm, the Ameno-nuboko polearm materialized in his clawed hand and as the remnants of his crystallized blood faded from view, he let out a great roar in challenge, leveling his weapon to the infernal beasts before him.

* * *

In a city hours away from Inaba, in the Port Island Kirijo Group office building, it was just another late night for one Mitsuru Kirijo, Chief Executive and Owner of the Group and one Akihiro Sanada, her acting advisor, bodyguard in view of the public and close friend.

There was nothing unusual with these two sharply dressed individuals still being in the office, let alone awake, past midnight, but this night, they weren't focusing on the growing piles of paperwork and classified documents involved in managing a large company dedicated to searching for and hunting Shadows, even if the Dark Hour was long over and done with.

Instead, their disbelieving eyes were glued to the state-of-the-art TV mounted on the wall across from Mitsuru's ridiculously large mahogany desk, which was still neatly cluttered with various papers and folders.

Displayed prominently on the large screen TV was a ten foot Persona, one they didn't recognize, wielding a bladed polearm and making swift work in killing a multitude of strange wolf-like creatures they knew not to be Shadows.

There hadn't been many cases of Shadows recently, not since the Dark Hour ended, and sightings had been in decline for a while now.

The TV had flickered on in static first, drawing their attention from the still unfinished documents that Mitsuru had previously been laboring over, but was now forgotten, and together, Mitsuru and Akihiko had watched, as a somehow familiar stranger they'd never seen before had physically transformed into a Persona they knew nothing about.

Not released a Persona, but transformed into one. That shouldn't be possible, as Personas were a part of the human mind, a manifestation brought to the surface of the psyche.

Without taking his eyes away from the TV screen, Akihiko opened the laptop he carried everywhere with him and, playing back the constantly recorded footage, captured a shot of the older man, a detective, by the look of him, that had been attacked at the beginning of the footage, also capturing a shot of the silver-haired teenager, for identification purposes.

As the battle came to a close, which had been an impressive display of brutal swordsmanship, he proceeded to run both screenshots in every visual database at their disposal in an attempt to find out who these people were and where they were now.

The screen flickered back into static before shutting itself off, and the office was silent for a few moments.

"What do you think that was, Akihiko?"

"I'm not sure. But that was definitely a Persona!"

"On that, I agree." Akihiko's laptop beeped and the redhead pulled the machine closer to her. "There's a hit in the Inaba police database of the victim; Ryotaro Dojima of the Inaba Police Department, a senior detective. Immediate family, wife, deceased; daughter, Nanako; sister, recently deceased; and nephew, Souji Seta. Here's a picture of the nephew."

With a few clicks, she brought up the picture on the laptop screen and Akihiko frowned. "The guy that turned into the Persona."

"Exactly." Further conversation was put on hold as Mitsuru's private cell phone rang; the shrill tone sharp in the quiet office. She pulled it out and answered, smiling briefly as she recognized the caller.

Akihiko waited as Mitsuru spoke with whoever it was calling and took the time to study the teenager on the computer screen in front of him.

Aside from the obvious physical differences, this Souji Seta reminded Akihiko of someone he hadn't thought of, for fear of remembering, in a long time. He reminded him a great deal of Minato Arisato, his friend and leader who had died to save them all a few years ago. There was just something about this kid, something that was familiar, and he hated it.

Since losing Minato, something had been missing in Akihiko, a lack of drive. For all he enjoyed working with Mitsuru in establishing a Shadow Hunting organisation, he still felt... empty.

Watching this kid transform had brought back a spark of that drive.

Akihiko wasn't sure what to make of it.

Mitsuru finished up with her phone call, sighing as she put it away. "That was Fuuka, calling from her university dorm in Tokyo. Apparently, we were not the only ones to witness this unforeseen event; Ken and Aigis also witnessed it in a similar fashion. Something needs to be done about this, and I believe I know exactly what needs to be done."

As his long time friend left her desk in search for something, Akihiko continued to stare at Seta's picture, trying to narrow down what it was that resembled their dear lost friend, Minato.

"Does this kid, Seta, remind you of Him?"

Mitsuru came back from wherever she had disappeared to, carrying a briefcase in hand. She glanced down at the picture, and she shrugged. "Perhaps a little. I would like you to go to Inaba, Akihiko, and investigate and assess this situation, and I'll inform Aigis to remain in standby; she can be your backup if necessary. If he really is a Persona user, we need to know about it, and how this has escaped our notice until now. You also might need these."

She held out the briefcase to Akihiko, and he took it from her, opening it up to check its contents. He looked up at her sharply. "You'll think I'll need these?"

"It's always good to be prepared."

He nodded. "Okay, I'll go. I can leave first thing in the morning. From what I know, Inaba's pretty far from here, it'll take me a day on the train to get there."

"Good luck, Akihiko."

"Thanks. I get the feeling I'll need it."

* * *

The last of those hellish beasts were destroyed, and Souji felt something snap inside of him, shattering the Izanagi façade he wore. He dropped down to his normal height as the last of the long coat and the polearm disintegrated away, and he turned for the house behind him.

The Hermit Fox had taken charge of Nanako, allowing Yosuke to pull Dojima into the safe confines of the house, and the slightly hysterical girl had, under Yosuke's instruction, pulled the first aid box down. Now Yosuke was disinfecting Dojima's leg while pulling out some bandages from the medical box, speaking quietly to the detective as he worked.

Souji shut the door behind him and knelt down beside his uncle, checking the wound with a frown. Yosuke had torn Dojima's pant leg up to the knee, to give himself some room to work, and while it had been bleeding a little heavily, the bleeding had about stopped.

"Uncle Dojima, are you okay?" He asked, putting a hand on the detective's shoulder, watching the older man grimace as Yosuke wrapped up the wound.

"I'll be fine." He grunted out, trying not to show the pain. "But what I would like to know is what the hell happened out there?"

"Let's get you fixed up and get Nanako back to bed, then I'll explain everything."

His uncle glared at him, scowling. "I'm holding you to that!"

Souji nodded, helping Yosuke to tie off the end of the bandage wrap, and while his boyfriend rummaged about for any kind of pain medication, Souji took Nanako upstairs and got her ready for bed again, the fox accompanying them.

"Big Bro?" Nanako's voice was quiet, trembling as she tried to hold herself together.

"Yes, Nanako-chan?"

"Is Dad going to be okay? I don't wanna lose him, too, like I lost Mom."

Souji smiled sadly at his cousin, remembering how the girl felt about her mother, and he remembered his own parents. "Nanako, he's going to be perfectly fine, I promise. Nothing is going to take him away from you."

"Okay. G'night, Big Bro." She closed her eyes sleepily, utterly exhausted now that the adrenaline was fading and Souji moved away from her bed, smiling in appreciation when the fox tossed her three kits onto the bed before jumping up herself, settling in beside Nanako.

"Thank you."

He hurried back downstairs, finding that Yosuke had gotten his uncle to take some pain pills and together, they hefted him up onto his good leg and got him settled comfortably on the couch.

Souji sat down at his usual spot in front of the small table by the couch and took a deep breath in preparation of the interrogation he was waiting for him by Dojima.

"Tell me what's going on. Now."

"Those things prowling outside? They're not normal; you can see that, and you already knew they weren't normal. They're supernatural creatures, a hellish beast from the Spirit world that is merging with ours." Souji looked at Dojima directly in the eyes, daring his uncle to contradict him, or to interrupt. "I know you had suspicions last year, that my friends and I were somehow connected with the serial murders. Well, you were right."

"We figured out how they were getting killed, and it seemed that only we had the power to stop it." Yosuke added in, flinching slightly from the detective's harsh glare.

"What I told you last year, about being able to get inside the TV was real, it was the truth, and that's where the killings were taking place. Adachi shoved the first two victims into the TV himself, and convinced Nametame that he would be saving them if the councilman pushed them in. It's entirely convoluted, and full of manipulation on Adachi's part, but right after the reporter's death, I found that I had the power to go to the world inside the TV."

"That makes no sense. That's... that's impossible." Dojima shook his head in denial, though the denial was half-assed at best. His nephew had said much of the same thing when he'd confronted him before Adachi's capture.

"The TV was only a portal, the connection made by Izanami, and the world inside is the representation of people's hearts. We traveled there to rescue all the possible victims, fighting for our lives to protect those around us, to protect our friends. Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa, Naoto Shirogane, and Nanako would all be dead if Yosuke, Chie Satonaka, and I hadn't found the way inside the TV, and discovered the means to fight the monsters that were there, killing the victims." Souji spoke calmly, legs crossed and hands folded on his lap, and Dojima could not hear a word of a lie in anything his nephew was saying.

"...You mean that... thing you turned into. Speaking of that, why the hell would you go and just shoot yourself?" Dojima demanded and Souji had the courtesy to fidget nervously.

"Yeah, about that, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." He shrugged while his uncle fumed silently. "It's not the usual method of summoning but that was my Persona, the form and face of my true self, my inner self."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mentioned that the world inside the TV was the manifestation of what was inside the hearts and minds of people. We were able to release our Personas for the first time in that world, so our Personas reflect a part of us deep inside our hearts." Souji withdrew the Izanagi Tarot card he'd stashed in his pocket after the battle and passed it to Dojima. The detective picked it up and studied it closely.

"Huh. It suits you."

"His name is Izanagi, and I guess that you could say that, well, Izanagi is a large part of me, of who I am."

Dojima turned to Yosuke, who flinched at the sudden scrutiny. "So, you got one of these... Personas, too?"

"Ah! Y-yeah." He removed his own card with Susano-o displayed and passed it to Dojima. "Name's Susano-o."

"That's the name of a god, isn't it? The Storm God?"

"I think so. Never really paid too much attention to mythology, though."

"So what happens now, Souji?"

"Now? Nothing's changed. I will still fight, just like I always have since coming here, and I will stop the merging of our worlds, with the help of my friends and the Personas we wield. Now that your eyes have been opened to the truth, you can help us, on the public side of things. When your leg's healed, you can go about your job like always, or you can deny everything I've just said, and have me committed, because it does sound insane, and you'll doom us all."

Dojima glared darkly at his nephew, who just looked back at him nonplussed. "Great endorsement of the faith you have in me, Souji. Thanks."

"Sure thing." He grinned at his uncle impudently. "Now I think we should get some sleep; I, for one, need it badly; I'm fucking exhausted."

Dojima reached over and smacked Souji upside the back of his head, snarling. "Hey, watch the language. Just because you can turn into a god doesn't mean I can't come over there and kick your ass for that mouth of yours."


	7. Introductions

The next morning dawned bright and clear, feeling a little surreal considering the previous night's events, and as Souji and Yosuke walked to school together, they kept noticing with growing unease that everyone they passed was gossiping quietly, huddled in groups along the river, a frantic, excited energy buzzing through the air. Was this because of last night? If so, how was that possible?

"Dude, do you have any idea what's going on?" Yosuke asked, looking around them in concern.

"Not one clue."

"Let's find the others; maybe they know what this is all about."

"Good call."

They reached the school without incident and found their friends assembled together in the classroom, clustered around his waiting desk. As it was still a little early before the day would start, Souji found, much to his surprise, that everyone from his Social Links that would be at Yasogami was assembled there, gathered around his and Yosuke's desks as they waited rather impatiently.

"Souji! Yosuke! Get over here!" Chie said, motioning them over with an exaggerated wave.

Ai latched onto Souji's arm as soon as he was within reach. "Ah, it was horrible! What was that thing last night?"

Souji and Yosuke glanced at each other, baffled, and both Yukiko and Naoto caught the silent exchange.

"You mean, you didn't witness it on the TV?" Naoto asked, and Souji shook his head.

"No, what are you talking about?"

"There was this demon on the TV last night, fighting off a pack of those dog monsters!" Kou said from his place beside Chie. "I've never seen anything like it, not at all."

Ayane then gave them an accurate description of Izanagi, and it was all Souji could do to keep a straight face, despite his shock and disbelief. The good news was that it seemed that nobody had seen him transform into his Persona, just the fight after. But the worrying aspect was how many people saw the battle in the first place? And why did it show up on the TVs in the first place? Perhaps some lingering influence from Izanami allowed it to happen.

"How come you guys didn't see it?" Daisuke asked.

"Ah, well, we were... preoccupied. My uncle, the detective, got hurt coming home last night by some of those hellhounds, he got bit and hurt his leg. Also, there was a strange power outage that killed Dojima's car." Souji shrugged. "It was weird; like suddenly electricity didn't exist at all."

"Is Dojima-san okay?" Rise asked, and Souji nodded.

"Yeah, he's fine. He's staying home for a few days."

"Did you know that was going to happen?" Startled eyes turned to stare at Naoki. "You sent all of us home yesterday. It was like you knew."

Souji shook his head, uneasy at Naoki's suspicious tone. The kid, while appreciative of Souji for his help in morning his sister's death, had always had a resentful attitude and had lashed out more than once. "I knew something bad was going to happen, but I didn't know what, exactly. I just had a feeling, that's all; it was like a tangible feeling in the air."

"It's kinda weird, you know?" Yumi stated. "With everything that's been happening, and now your warning from yesterday. You sure you don't know anything?"

Souji could only shrug helplessly. "I've always been perceptive to the weird stuff. I know there's a reason for what's been happening, but it's only a feeling to me. You guys know that I've always been perceptive. I'll tell you what I can, when I can."

Daisuke gave him a somewhat dubious look. "I get the feeling that you're still keeping something from us, but I trust you to let us know about whatever it is if we need to know about it, 'cuz there's not much we can do about all this weird shit. Until then, well, I'll deal."

The others gave their mutual agreement to the soccer player's words before leaving the room for their own respective classroom, leaving Souji alone with his fellow Persona users.

"You will tell us the full details of the incident last night to us during the lunch period, correct?" Naoto asked, picking up her bag and moving to Rise's side as the underclassmen started shuffling around to get to their own classroom.

Souji nodded briskly. "I will."

"Then we'll wait for ya." Kanji said before leading the younger girls from the room. Chie and Yukiko frowned at him and Yosuke, concerned for them.

"Is everything okay, though? You guys didn't get hurt?"

Yosuke shook his head, a wan smile in place. "Only Dojima-san and he'll be okay soon."

"That's good then." Yukiko didn't get a chance to say anything else as Kashiwagi called the class to attention and the school day finally got started.

Souji found it hard to pay attention to his classes that morning, for a few reasons, and he could see that the others were also tense, waiting to hear his version of the previous night's events, and what this could mean for them in their fight to save the world.

There were several things to think about, like summoning Personas on this side of the screen, and then there was the method of how to do the summoning; Souji didn't think shooting themselves with actual guns was the smartest of ideas, as his hand was currently wrapped up in several bandages. The bullet wound hadn't damaged his Tarot Card, thankfully, but it caused damage to his hand, although the wound was healing at a greatly accelerated pace; it still wasn't a viable method.

They needed something else.

Then there was the matter of Souji's vision last night. He found that he wasn't really surprised at the concept of other Persona users, but he wondered how many there were in the world; were they close by? Could any of them help him and the others? Were any of them even still alive? There were too many questions, and no way to answer them.

When the lunch bell finally rang, Souji found himself surrounded by the others, and quietly so as to not be overheard, he told them about the previous night's incident, including his vision of the other unknown teen, which had given him the idea to use Dojima's gun to shoot himself. He hadn't even told Yosuke of the vision yet, having needed the time until now to process the whole incident.

Naoto was curious about the teen from Souji's vision. "So he clearly said the word 'Persona'?"

Souji nodded. "Yes, before he shot himself in the head. That part was the most disturbing, but because his brains didn't get splattered everywhere, it gave me the idea of using Dojima's gun to release Izanagi."

"But that was still very reckless of you, Senpai!" Rise pouted at him. "What if it hadn't worked?"

"But it did, so there's no point in thinking about it." Souji shrugged, holding up his hand, wrapped up and bandaged. "But I didn't get through it completely unscathed. As you can see, shooting myself did hurt me, but not nearly as bad, I think, as it would have been under more normal circumstances."

"If you say so, but what are the rest of us gonna do?" Kanji asked, clearly not comfortable with the idea of shooting himself in order to help save the world. Souji couldn't him, or any of the others, if he was honest. If it hadn't been the sheer adrenaline and desperation of the situation last night, he might not have been able to pull the trigger, either.

"And where are we going to get the weapons? Would normal guns even work the way we wanted to? Only Naoto-kun has a permit to carry her pistol, as part of her job as a detective." Yukiko said helplessly, and Souji could only shake his head, feeling much the same way.

"I don't know. Maybe something will turn up."

* * *

The train pulled into YasoInaba station sometime in the afternoon, and it wasn't until Akihiko Sanada had shouldered his one bag and stepped off the train and through the diminutive station that he took notice of the abnormal and unusual environment that completely enveloped the town.

Then again, how could he not notice the decaying, rusting infrastructure of the station entrance, or the strange almost-invisible things hovering in the air, or the floating balls of blue fire? It was like he was walking through a book of folktales.

He took this all in with one glance around before digging into his pocket for his cell phone. With a quick tap of a button on his speed dial, he smirked as the other end was picked up before the first ring ended.

_"You have arrived, Akihiko?"_

"Yes, Mitsuru. Something strange is definitely going on in this town. I'll get back to you once I've found the kid."

_"Good luck, Akihiko."_

"Thanks." He ended the call, dropping his phone back into his pocket before setting off into town, walking through the streets in the general direction of the Inn he would be staying at. From what he could see, there was nothing in this town, and aside from the strange happenings that were currently enveloping the small town, Akihiko would have guessed that this place was nothing more than a countryside vacation spot, where the most exciting thing to do was fish in the river.

He had a picture of his objective in his leather-clad hand, preferring to wear his customary leather gloves for this investigation. Akihiko knew he stood out in his suit that Mitsuru had insisted on, but he found he was actually comfortable in the expensive clothes his best friend had provided for him. Dressed in cream colored slacks with a matching suit jacket slung over his shoulder with his bag, a black button-down collared dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, accented with a striking red tie, he looked like a prominent businessman or perhaps a lawyer.

Mitsuru had already made arrangements for him to stay at Inaba's famous Amagi Inn for however long he would need, so with the directions she'd given him in hand; he hurried over to drop off his things before canvassing the streets for his mystery Persona user.

One of the employees of the Inn had told him, upon seeing the photo of his target that the kid was definitely a high-schooler, and was also friends with the Inn owner's daughter, and perhaps they were still at the school.

Now armed with directions to Yasogami High School, Akihiko proceeded into the central core of the town, and was deeply troubled to see the state of the dilapidated Shopping District, and the scale of the destruction. Even Shadow attacks generally didn't cause this much collateral damage.

Something was definitely not right with this town, and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be as easy as just finding his objective target, and was probably more complicated than dismantling the Dark Hour had been. There would be a process, a method to curing the madness, and they, either the kid or Akihiko, would be flying blind before stumbling on the solution.

Why did things have to get complicated?

Who was he kidding; it was always complicated.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Akihiko asked around some of the local stores, and he found out that the kid was a frequent visitor to the Chinese food restaurant, and for some reason the novelty weapons shop; he was friends with the delinquent son of the textiles shop owner, and that Yasogami High was now out for the day, but maybe the kid was still there, since the school clubs were still ongoing.

The kid was apparently the social butterfly.

(But so was Minato...)

Akihiko clamped down the intrusive thoughts and continued his way towards the high school, absently wondering why he couldn't seem to bring himself to call the kid by his name, even in his own mind. Maybe Akihiko didn't want to get personal, too attached, and calling the kid by his name would make it personal for him, mostly because of that weird familiarity he had felt when he'd witnessed the battle last night on the TV, a familiarity that still strongly reminded Akihiko of Minato.

He hated the fact that Minato had chosen to die for them, had chosen to sacrifice himself for them; he hated feeling so helpless as to depend on him to keep them safe, to continue being the barrier keeping Nyx at bay. Worst of all, Akihiko hated that he couldn't help his friend with his self-appointed task, just like he'd failed to help Shinji or even Miki all those years ago.

But even with that ordeal with the Abyss of Time, and learning what had become of his friend, Akihiko still, even given the choice again, would not have changed a thing.

Because despite it all, only Minato was strong enough to keep fighting, and Akihiko had to do his part in keeping Minato strong, since he figured that Minato relied on them, the friends he'd left behind to be his strength.

So Akihiko would continue to be Minato's strength, since it was the only he could figure to repay the enormous debt.

He respected Minato too much to do anything else.

A figure ahead of him, walking towards him, towards the Shopping District behind him, broke through Akihiko's morbid and depressing thoughts, and he frowned as he looked up to inspect the other person crossing his path.

Ahead of him was a tall teenager, just a few centimeters taller than him, and a bit broader in the shoulder, too. Bleached blonde hair that was slicked back, several piercings in both ears, a nose stud, a scar right above one eye, and a skull-n-crossbones tattoo on his arm clearly labeled the teen as a delinquent, possibly a gang member, and Akihiko recalled that his target was friends with the town delinquent. Also, the blond teen ahead of him was carrying a shield of some kind (a shield, really?), although Akihiko couldn't begin to fathom a reason for it.

Keeping his face impassive, Akihiko approached the teen with confidence, completely unfazed by the sudden suspicious glare that was thrown his way.

"Excuse me, would I be able to ask you a few questions?"

The teen narrowed his eyes. "That all depends. Who're you?"

"My name is Akihiko Sanada; I'm a consultant for the Kirijo Group. I'm looking for someone, a kid about your age; maybe you can help me. And you are?"

The blonde hesitated just for a second or two. "Name's Kanji Tatsumi. Who're you lookin' for, and what makes you think I can help?"

Akihiko flashed his target's photo to the teen, Tatsumi, and he smirked inwardly at the slight flash of recognition in the delinquent's blue eyes even as his expression darkened in tone. This kid knew something, and Akihiko was now determined to find out what.

"Have you seen him? I hear he goes to Yasogami High, which, by your jacket, you do too. It's important that I speak with him."

But Tatsumi took a step back, away from Akihiko, suspicion and distrust coloring his body language as he shifted in a way that had the strange shield behind his leg. "Why do you need to talk to Senpai? What's this Kirijo Group? Everything was taken care of, so there'd be no reason for someone like you to need to see him!"

Apparently Tatsumi was protective of his 'Senpai'.

"That is a matter for me to discuss with him, so I suggest that you cooperate, and since I believe that you know where Seta is, you're going to take me to him for our little chat." Akihiko said, and Tatsumi snarled.

"Hell no! Not until you tell me what you need to talk to him about!"

Akihiko was somewhat impressed, annoyed but still impressed. This kid was standing up to him with the intentions of protecting his friend. It was quite admirable, and if Akihiko had been anyone else, he would have quit already in the face of Tatsumi's imposing menace, as the kid was dangerous and full of fire from that temper of his.

He was also intrigued at his own reactions to Tatsumi. Since Minato's death and finding the truth of his soul as the Seal, Akihiko had withdrawn into himself, more and more as time passed. He'd lasted one semester in Tokyo U before Mitsuru had given him an out and offered him a job as one of her top Shadow Operatives. He'd spent the last year and some months slowly driving himself into the ground, if only to stem the tide of helpless fear and guilt that he knew he carried. The delinquent before him somehow made him want to fight again; made him want to _live_ again. He wanted to spar again, to fight for the sake of fun, either verbally or physically, it didn't matter which, and this kid in front of him was also a fighter, strong and powerful despite his self-consciousness.

Akihiko remembered something that Minato had once told him. He had been in one of his rare talkative moods and had told Akihiko that he was the Emperor, and as the Emperor he was strong and would never falter in his convictions, and his strength, his inner strength would never fade.

And Minato's words were true. Akihiko had not once given up on anything he believed in, even when running away, especially since hearing those words spoken so long ago.

It was beyond strange, because this kid called out to his soul, like a kindred spirit; in another time, they might even have been friends, and it certainly helped that Tatsumi was fairly attractive too.

Wait a minute.

_Where_ had _that_ thought come from?

Inwardly shaking his head to clear his wandering thoughts, Akihiko focused his attention back on Tatsumi, mentally sizing him up like he would an opposing fighter in the ring. "Alright, fine, kid. It has to do with the events of last night. Both my employer and I witnessed it, we deal with similar occurrences and I've been sent to search him out."

"And what the hell do you want with him?"

"Again, that's a discussion I'll have with your precious 'Senpai' only."

A frustrated snarl from Tatsumi was his only warning, but it was warning enough, and dropping his jacket and briefcase to the side, Akihiko easily dodged the first punch, ducking under his taller opponent's arm to get in closer.

But it turned out that Tatsumi wasn't at all stupid, and the teen jumped out of the way of Akihiko's retaliating jab long enough to bring around the shield he carried.

The thing was massive, shining and bright, and Akihiko wasn't able to get too close a look at it before the shield made contact with his shoulder, sending him skidding across the pavement. The boxer stared as Kanji settled into a battle stance, holding the shield in one hand against the ground, and he realized that the blond street fighter didn't use the damn thing like it was meant to be used; as a freaking form of defense! Instead, it seemed that Tatsumi using the shield as a literal interpretation of 'defense is the best offense'.

"That all ya got?"

Akihiko grimaced at the taunt, eyes narrowing as he lifted himself off the pavement, dusting off his shirt as he did so. Cracking his knuckles loudly, Akihiko settled into his own familiar battle stance, his fists raised before him in the traditional boxer style.

"You've seen nothing yet."

He didn't allow the kid to respond, leaping forward with all the speed his leaner frame gave him, ducking low beneath the shield Tatsumi wielded (damn, he was fast with that thing), spinning around and getting behind the blond and with two quick movements, Tatsumi was unarmed, the shield clanging noisily against the concrete, and the kid was on the ground, pinned beneath Akihiko with both arms behind his back and Akihiko's knee digging in.

"Get offa me! Fuck, _fine_! I'll bring you to Souji-Senpai; just get the _fuck_ off me!" Kanji squirmed beneath the stranger's knee that fucking hurt like hell, digging into his back like that, and it pissed him off that he couldn't move, not even an inch.

Whoever this punk was, he was a seasoned fighter. Kanji knew that only surprise had worked in his favor before.

"That a promise?" Kanji could almost hear the damn smirk. "You'll behave?"

"Goddamnit, I'm a man of my word! Now get off my back before I _make_ you, you little punk!" They both knew it was an empty threat.

Then Sanada's weight was gone, and Kanji's arms were free again, and he slowly picked himself up off the ground, rolling his shoulders to try and relieve some of the ache from being pinned.

The thought of Sanada's firm weight on top of him made Kanji blush a little, although he'd never admit it. Punk was good, damn good, though, at fighting, and if Kanji was right in his guess, he'd say that Sanada was likely professionally trained or something.

Akihiko waited patiently with his arms crossed as Tatsumi got to his feet, glowering at him. The kid was looking a little flushed, but that was probably just embarrassment at having his ass handed to him so easily.

He watched as the blond picked up his shield, slinging it across his back like a school bag before glaring in Akihiko's direction and stalking off past him, heading more into town. The boxer only smirked and gathered up his suit jacket and briefcase from where he'd dropped it to fight Tatsumi before following after the blond.

As they quickly past the Shopping District, heading in a direction to the north of the town, Tatsumi reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Without looking at the older male beside him, keeping pace with him, he dialed a number.

Kanji didn't even wait until Souji fully acknowledged him on the other end of the line. "Senpai, are you home yet?"

Akihiko listened carefully to the half-conversation and he could even hear someone's voice on the other end. A glimpse at his surroundings revealed a residential neighborhood but they passed a wrecked car that was still in the process of getting towed away. He could see scratches on the side of the vehicle, and he wondered what kind of beast had made those scratches.

"Is Dojima-san there, too? 'Cuz you're about to get some company. We'll be there in a few minutes." Kanji hung up, pocketing his phone.

"Dojima? The detective?"

"If you really know what happened last night, you know that he got hurt."

Kanji took him to the last house on the street, knocking once on the door before it was by another teen, a brunet with red headphones around his neck, and upon seeing Akihiko, the other teen's brown eyes narrowed in suspicion as he gave him a once over.

The brunet returned his attention to Kanji, jerking his head in Akihiko's direction. "The company you mentioned?"

"Yeah. Punk's good at scrappin', too."

"Souji's waiting inside with Dojima, and fortunately Nanako-chan's with a friend, so we won't have any interruptions, either."

They were ushered inside, and they removed their shoes before stepping fully into the house. Akihiko could see the kitchen immediately off to the left, opening up into a decent-sized living room.

He recognized the detective from the video as Ryotaro Dojima, still disheveled and bandaged up from the attack the previous night, glaring at him suspiciously from the couch as Akihiko walked further into the room. Then Akihiko caught his first look at his target, and, to be honest, he stared.

Souji Seta was above average in height for his age group, lean in build, but not quite as tall as Tatsumi, with gray-silver hair that swept across gray eyes, and the way he held himself, cool and aloof at first glance, with an unshakable, confident determination that strongly, no, fiercely reminded Akihiko so much of Minato that he almost stopped breathing.

For a moment, all Akihiko could see was Minato standing before him, superimposed against Seta, looking as he had been that fateful night when they had faced Nyx together.

"Who are you?"

Seta's voice, cautious and distant, brought Akihiko back from his memories, and he pulled out his Kirijo Group ID card, handing it over to Seta. "Akihiko Sanada of the Kirijo Group, formerly of S.E.E.S., I'm here to investigate a certain incident that occurred last night."

"Those groups mean nothing to me." Souji shrugged dismissively. "Tell me something that does and we'll talk. Meanwhile, have a seat and make yourself comfortable. You too, Kanji, Yosuke."

The other two teens in the room nodded, and once settled on the couch or around the small table, Akihiko decided to get to the point.

"What do you know of the Dark Hour?"

Confusion flashed across Souji's face, and Akihiko frowned, not liking where this was going already.

"What are you talking about?"

"The Dark Hour, a hidden 25th hour of the day, and the only time in which we can summon our Personas. My group destroyed the Dark Hour, so how did you summon your Persona last night?"

This time, alarm was apparent in Souji's expression. "I have never experienced the Dark Hour!"

"If you know nothing of the Dark Hour, how do you know of your Persona?"

Souji could see that the subject was making the adult sitting across from him uneasy, and he suspected it had something to do with him, but he couldn't figure out why. He knew he had a choice to make, a decision in whether to trust this complete stranger with the truth of their Personas and the world inside the TV, and as he contemplated, a memory surfaced, and he recalled what Igor had said of his mysterious predecessor. He wondered if this Akihiko Sanada was connected to the other Fool and Wild Card.

With these thoughts swirling around in his head, Souji made his decision and explained to Akihiko about the world inside people's hearts, accessed through the TV, and their battle against the combined forces of Ameno-Sagiri and Izanami, explaining in some detail the ordeals he and his friends had gone through to lift the fog on their souls and face their true selves, revealing their Personas.

Silence descended after his somewhat lengthy explanation, and he allowed the man sitting across from him a few moments to go over his words.

"So how is it, Akihiko Sanada, of the Kirijo Group, that you know about our Personas?"

Akihiko smirked at him, pride glinting in his cool eyes. "Because I, too, wield a Persona; his name is Caesar."

"And the Dark Hour? Could you explain that to me?"

The story Akihiko told him sounded almost unbelievable, as he described the Dark Hour, and what had caused it, and what he and his friends had done to bring it to an end. From Akihiko, Souji learned of Tartarus, the Harbinger Nyx, and how they had prevented what he called the Fall, giving the world a future. He also learned the secret about the full moon, remembering that Igor had mentioned it once before.

The largest revelation Souji learned was that Akihiko's friend and leader had sacrificed himself to become the Seal, protecting them forever, and Souji had a flash of memory again, of the previous night when he'd had that vision of the boy with blue hair shooting himself in the head.

"The friend you lost, your leader..." Akihiko frowned as Souji hesitated, not sure of his words to proceed. "He wouldn't happen to have been kind of short with blue hair that fell in front of his face, would he?"

The sharp intake of breath and the widening of blue/gray eyes answered his question, and as Souji studied Akihiko, he could see that his mentioning of the other Wild Card had hit a sore spot in the boxer, since Akihiko's face was pale, a stricken look to him, and his gloved hands were clenched tightly in fists.

It took a few tense moments before Akihiko could speak. "How... how do you know of him?"

Souji suddenly felt guilty, ashamed at bringing up the subject of his Wild Card predecessor. The subject was obviously a sore spot and trying time for the man sitting across from him, and here he was, rubbing his face in it. "He and I, well, we have a mutual acquaintance who helps me with my Personas. That acquaintance has mentioned your friend to me before. I also saw him in a vision, right before I transformed into Izanagi. That vision was what gave me the idea of shooting myself."

Through all the explanations, Yosuke, Kanji and Dojima had remained silent, watching the two of them as they spoke to each other. But now, Dojima leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with a sigh.

"Yosuke, could you grab some Advil from above the sink, please? My leg is killing me. And Souji, I still think it was stupid idea to use my gun like that." The detective nearly snarled, but it lacked any heat behind it. Akihiko looked at him, frown in place.

"You have an Evoker? Where did you get one?"

"An Evoker? What the hell's that? I've just got a standard police-issued automatic." Suspicion gleamed in Dojima's eyes, and Souji felt his stomach sink.

Akihiko seemed to realize the severity of the situation and pulled the small briefcase he'd been carrying onto the small table. "A foolhardy idea, and you were very lucky. Only one person in my group of Persona Users didn't use an Evoker, but then again, she was an android, built and programmed to not need one. The rest of us had to go through the disturbing process of summoning our respective Personas using this."

From the briefcase, Akihiko removed an object that Souji had only seen once before, in the vision of his predecessor. It was sleek and shiny, obviously brand new and had never been used, the metal gleaming in the light of the room, and Souji could only stare at it.

He reached across the table; hand shaking slightly as he took the imitation gun from Akihiko's gloved hand. It fit perfectly in his palm, and for a brief second, Souji flashed back to his vision from the previous night, and he could hear, just barely, the soft whisper invoking the being inside his mind.

"The Evoker you're holding is a gun, a weapon, but at the same time, it isn't, not in the conventional sense as we know it." Akihiko explained. "I don't know the specific mechanics of how it works like it does, but it does function as it should. The feeling you get from shooting yourself in the head is real, too."

Kanji spoke up for the first time since the explanations started. "How can you do that?"

Akihiko smirked at the bleach blonde. "It wasn't easy, and some of us had some serious problems with the method, but it was the only thing we had."

"I assume you have permits for these... Evokers?" Dojima spoke up, and Akihiko nodded.

"Of course. Not that I ever carried my Evoker outside the Dark Hour before, but Mitsuru, my boss in this case, felt it was a necessary precaution. I also have permits for each Evoker I have with me; they only need to be filled out with some names and filed." Akihiko smirked at Souji. "I have one for each person on your team, and some extras, since I was unaware as to how many I'd be needing to bring."

Yosuke had stopped paying attention to the conversation, instead looking at his boyfriend with a frown. The silveret hadn't responded since he grabbed the Evoker, gray eyes slightly vacant, as though listening to something none of them could hear.

"Souji?"

His partner blinked suddenly, staring at the weapon he held. "Akihiko, can you hear your Persona when you hold the Evoker?"

The boxer was taken by surprise by the sudden question. "Um, no. Caesar doesn't really have a voice."

Souji glanced at Yosuke, and his uncle and Kanji, then to Akihiko, hearing the unvoiced query hanging in the air. "Izanagi spoke to me just now, swearing to fight beside like he always has, and when the time comes, he will choose."

"Choose?" Kanji asked, bemused. "Choose what?"

Souji could only shake his head. "He didn't say."

"I don't know about you kids," Dojima announced, breaking the uncomfortable silence that followed Souji's ominous words. "But it's been a long day, my meds are starting to kick in, and I want to get to bed, even though it's still early. Night's over."

The others assembled nodded, and the detective recruited Kanji to help him upstairs to his bed, since he still couldn't put any real weight on his leg, and the pain pills were starting to make him unsteady. Akihiko removed two more Evokers from his case, along with the paperwork for them, leaving them for Yosuke and Kanji before taking his leave with a nod to Souji.

"Hey, Akihiko?"

The boxer turned back to glance at Souji. "Yes?"

"Don't leave town anytime soon. I have the feeling that you will play an important role in the events to come."

Akihiko snorted, a small grin in place. "You sound just like him. Don't worry; I won't go anywhere. I'll be at the Inn if you need to reach me."

Yosuke heaved a huge sigh as the door clicked shut. "Man, this is too much. Who would have guessed that there were other Personas than ours, huh Partner?"

Souji looked back down to the Evoker in his grip. "Yeah. Who would have?"


End file.
